LIFE 


OP 


LORD  BEACONSFIELD, 


BY 


T.   E.  KEBBEL 


philadejjPhiVv: 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY. 

1888. 


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V 


mtm  i!60M 


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PREFACE    TO    THE    SEMES. 


The  intention  of  the  Statesmen  Series  is,  as  its 
title  implies,  to  comprise  a  collection  of  brief 
biographical  studies  of  the  great  men  who  have 
influenced  the  political  history  of  the  world. 
Its  scope  is,  therefore,  extremely  catholic,  em- 
bracing the  ancients  and  the  moderns,  conti- 
nental as  well  as  English  statesmen,  and 
including  not  only  those  Avho  have  shaped  our 
foreign  policy  and  domestic  institutions,  but 
also  the  creators  of  our  Indian  and  Colonial 
Empires.  And  the  hst  of  subjects  will  not  be 
confined  to  those  who  have  been  statesmen  ir 
the  narrower  sense  of  the  term,  that  is,  to 
ministers  of  State  and  members  of  legislative 
assemblies.  A  statesman,  according  to  Dr. 
Johnson,  is  **  one  ^vho  is  versed  in  political 
affairs,"  and  statesmanship  is  exercised  not 
only  by  Czars  and  Popes  who  act  as  their  own 
Prime  Ministers,    but    also    by   constitutional 


^  •     PREFACE. 


sovereigns  wlio,  though  in  theory  they  reign 
but  do  not  govern,  have  frequently,  as  Sir 
Theodore  Martin's  Life  of  the  Prince  Consort 
shows,  brought  into  action  a  very  appreciable 
amount  of  personal  authority.  Even  to  modern 
republics,  Thucydides'  description  of  the  Athe- 
nian  constitution  in  the  time  of  Pericles  is 
invariably  applicable  —  they  are  ostensibly 
democracies,  but  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  ruled 
by  their  first  man.  Presidents,  therefore,  and 
sovereigns— ro^9  faineants  always  excepted— 
will  find  places  in  the  Statesmen  Series. 

Though  the  Series  will  be  comprehensive,  it 
^  does  not  pretend  to  be  exhaustive.     Complete- 
ness  of    treatment   is   no    doubt   desirable  in 
bookss  ^  of    reference,    the    primary    object   of 
which  is  to  supply  information  on  points  that 
general  reading  fails  to  illuminate,  but  would 
be    unattainable    in    a   collection    of    volumes 
which,   though   deriving  a  certain    amount  of 
strength  from  unity,  must  ultimately  stand  or 
fall   by   the   merits  of    each  individual  work. 
Nor  is  the  arrangement  in  which  the  volumes 
are  to  appear  affected  at  all  by  any  considera- 
tions  of    chronology.       Their   publication   in 
historical   order   would,    perhaps,    have   some 
advantages,  but  gaps  would  inevitably  occur  in 
the  ranks,  and  the  groups  would  fail  to  form  a 
picture.      The   provinces  of  history  and   bio- 


PREFACE.  vii 

graphy  are,  after  all,  widely  different,  and  the 
old  view  of  history  which  regarded  it  as  a 
string  of  lives  of  great  men  has  long  since 
been  consigned  to  the  limbo  of  rejected 
fallacies. 

Political  biography  has,  however,  a  distinct 
value  and  interest  of  its  own  ;  for  if  the  states- 
man is  the  child  of  his  epoch,  none  the  less 
is  his  epoch  moulded  by  the  statesman ;  nor 
can  the  relative  importance  of  great  social 
movements  be  properly  understood  without  an 
adequate  knowledge  of  the  human  forces  by 
which  they  are  impelled  or  controlled.  It  is 
the  aim  of  the  Statesmen  Series  to  supply  that 
knowledge,  in  a  compact  form,  and  without 
prejudice  to  the  larger  works  which,  for  those 
who  have  leisure  to  consult  them,  must  always 
contain  the  most  authoritative,  because  the 
most  detailed,  accounts  of  great  political 
careers.  And  of  incident  and  interest  the 
lives  of  great  statesmen,  as  a  rule,  possess  a 
far  greater  measure  than  those  of  literary  men, 
though  less,  perhaps,  than  those  of  men  of 
action.  For  if  much  of  a  statesman's  time  is 
passed  in  the  solitude  of  the  study,  much  also 
is  passed  in  the  passionate  precincts  of  the 
Senate  and  in  the  hardly  less  dramatic  debates 
round  the  council-table. 

Within  the  limits  of  a  well-defined  subject, 


viii  pe:eface. 

the  selection,  then,  will  be  purely  arbitrary; 
and  what  the  Series  will  lose  in  continuity  of 
interest  it  will  perhaps  be  thought  to  gain  in 
variety.  It  so  happens  that  the  volumes  in 
preparation,  as  well  as  that  now  published,  deal 
with  the  present  century,  and  may,  therefore, 
be  considered  to  derive  a  certain  amount  of 
additional  interest  from  that  quality  which  it  is 
the  fashion  to  call  actuality.  They  are  as  fol- 
low :  The  Prince  Consort,  by  Miss  Charlotte 
Yonge;  O'Connell,  by  J.  A.  Hamilton;  Prince 
GortschaJcoff,  by  Charles  Marvin  ;  Gamhetta,  by 
F.  T.  Marzials ;  Earl  Russell,  by  Edward  Wal- 
ford ;  Lord  Palmerston,  by  the  Editor.  Other 
volumes  have  been  arranged. 

L.  0.  S. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


*'  I  DISAPPROVE  of  contemporary  biography,"  Lord  Bea- 
consfield  oDce  said  to  the  present  writer,  "  and  I  dislike 
being  the  subject  of  it.'^  We  may  reasonably  conclude, 
therefore,  that  none  of  the  biographies  which  appeared 
during  his  lifetime  owe  much  to  his  own  communica- 
tions. They  are  all  in  fact  founded  on  materials  acces- 
sible to  the  whole  world ;  nor,  down  to  the  present 
time,  has  his  death  set  free  any  information  not  pre- 
viously known  to  all  who  had  studied  his  career,  beyond 
that  contained  in  the  highly  interesting  Correspondence 
with  his  Sister  brought  out  by  Mr.  Ealph  Disraeli.  The 
time  will  come  when  a  complete  and  particular  account 
of  the  life  and  times  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  will  be  one 
of  the  most  interesting  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able works  which  can  stand  upon  a  statesman's  shelves. 
Till  then  we  must  content  ourselves  with  such  provi- 
sional and  preliminary  biographies  as,  in  the  case  of 
almost  all  our  great  men,  precede  the  one  final  and 
authentic  narrative  which  disposes  of  the  subject  and 
clears  the  field  of  all  competitors.  Of  intermediate 
works  of  this  description    there  are,  in  the  case  of  Lord 


X  PBEFATOBY  NOTE. 

Beaconsfield,  only  three  with  which  I  am  acquainted, 
pretending  to  the  character  of  regular  biographies,  one 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Macknight,  published  in  1854,  one  by 
Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  published  in  1878,  and  one,  by 
much  the  best,  by  Mr.  A.  0.  Ewald,  published  in  1883. 
Beside  these,  a  very  clever  and  appreciative  study  of 
Mr.  Disraeli,  by  Mr.  George  Henry  Francis,  was  re- 
published in  1852  from  Erasers  Magazine^  while  the 
public  life  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  has  been  brought  out 
more  recently  by  Mr.  Hitchman.  A  German  study  of 
Lord  Beaconsfield  by  G.  Brandes,  of  which  a  translation 
was  published  by  Mr.  Bentley  in  1880^  is,  I  believe, 
worth  reading,  and  I  am  sorry  that  my  attention  was 
not  called  to  it  till  it  was  too  late  to  consult  it  for  the 
purpose  of  the  present  volume.  Of  course,  of  the 
various  pamphlets,  memoirs,  and  quasi-biographical 
notices  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  which  have  appeared 
during  the  last  forty  years  the  name  is  legion,  and  to 
give  anything  like  a  complete  list  of  them  on  the  pre- 
sent occasion  would  be  impossible.  The  obituary 
notices  of  him  which  appeared  in  the  principal  daily 
papers  contain  much  interesting  matter,  and  the 
Standard  notice  was  republished  by  Messrs.  Macmillan 
in  a  small  octavo  volume.  From  the  numerous 
volumes  of  political  memoirs,  diaries,  and  correspon- 
dence, of  which  the  last  few  years  have  been  so  fertile, 
abundant  particulars  relating  to  both  the  public  and 
private  life  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  are  to  be  collected, 
especially  from  the  Greville  Journals,  the  Memoirs  of 
an  Ex-Minister y  by  Lord  Malmesbury,  St.  Petersburg 
and  London^  by  Count  Vitzthum,  the  Croker  PajierSf 
and  the  Lives  of  Lord  Palmerston,  Lord  Melbourne, 


ritEFATORY  NOTE.  xi 

Lord  Lyndhurst,  Bishop  Wilberforce,  and  Mr.  Herries, 
which  have  all  appeared  within  the  last  twenty  years. 

The  first  complete  edition  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's 
works  down  to  that  date,  was  published  in  1853.  An- 
other, in  ten  volumes,  appeared  in  1857  ;  and  a  second 
impression  of  it  in  1870.  The  Hughenden  edition  of 
his  tales  and  novels  was  published  in  1881.  A  very 
useful  and  well-executed  edition  of  the  Letters  of  Run- 
nymede,  the  Vindic  ition  of  the  British  Constitution^ 
and  the  Spirit  of  Whif/gism,  has  also  been  published 
by  Mr.  Hitchman.  And  two  volumes  of  speeches, 
edited  by  myself,  with  explanatory  prefaces  attached, 
were  issued  by  Messrs.  Longmans  in  1881. 

T,  E.  K. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  I. 

PEJE-PARLIAMENTAEY   PERIOD. 

1804-1837. 
Birth  and  boyhood — First  appearance  in  print — Vivian  Grey — Travels 
on  the  Continent — Letters  to  Sarah  Disraeli — Entrance  into 
Society — Literary  and  political  activity — Attempts  to  get  into 
Parliament — Popular  Toryism — The  Crisis  Examined — Quarrel 
with  O'Connell — Disraeli's  vindication  of  his  public  conduct — 
Relations  with  Hume — Disraeli  and  Lyndhurst — Elected  for 
Maidstone •        •    p.  1 


OHAFjCER  II. 

THE  GREAT  CONSERVATIVE  PARTY. 
1837-1843. 
State  o  Parties  in  1837 — Disraeli's  maiden  speech — Evidence  as  to 
its  merits — Position  in  the  House — The  Bedchamber  plot — The 
Chartist  Petition — Disraeli's  marriage — Change  in  his  circum- 
stances— Dissolution  of  1841 — Disraeli  returned  for  Shrewsbury 
—Exposition  of  his  views  on  Protection     .         .         •        ,     p.  20 


CHAPTER  ITI. 

YOUNG    ENGLAND. 
1843. 

Young  England  Toryism  and  Conservatism — Disraeli's  position  — 
Breach  with  Peel — Coningshy — The  Young  England  creed — 
Didactic  elements  in  Coningshy — Its  portraits  and  types — Tour  in 
the  manufacturing  districts — Syhil — Theme  of  the  novel — Dis- 
raeli's political  ideal — Young  England  and  the  Anglican  revival. 
p.  34 


xiv  CONTJSNTS, 


CHAPTER  I\r. 

BIE   EOBEET   PEEL    AND    PEEE    TEA.DE. 

1845-52. 
First  direct  attack  on  Peel — The  Post  Office  scandal — Debate  on 
agricultural  distress — Tour  on  the  Continent — Disraeli's  econo- 
mical policy — Fall  of  Peel's  administration — Visit  to  Belvoir 
Castle — Disi-aeli  leader  of  the  Opposition — Reconstruction  of  the 
Conservative  party — Speech  on  the  Burdens  upon  Land — Success 
of  Disraeli's  tactics — Social  incidents — The  Life  of  Lord  George 
Bentinck — The  first  Derby  ministry — Bitterness  of  the  Opposition 
— Successes  of  the  Government — The  London  Press — Result  of 
the  general  election — The  Budget — Defeat  of  the  Government. 

p.  69 


CHAPTER  y. 

ME.    DISEAELI   AND    LOED   DEEBT. 

1852-1868. 

The  Press  newspaper — Funeral  oration  over  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
— Divisions  in  the  Cabinet — Mr.  Disraeli's  irony  at  its  expense — 
Refusal  of  Lord  Derby  to  take  office — Tactics  of  the  Conser- 
vative party  in  Opposition — The  China  debate — Defeat  of  the 
Palmerston  Government — The  second  Derby  Administration — 
Th'e  Ellenborough  despatch — The  Reform  Bill — Resignation  of 
Ministers — The  Conservatives  in  Opposition — Earl  Russell's 
foreign  policy  —  Church  and  Queen — Mr.  Disraeli's  financial 
speeches — The  career  and  defeat  of  Earl  Russell's  Government — 
The  Reform  Bills — Mr.  Disraeli  leader  of  the  party        ,        p.  86 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ME.    DISEAEil    AS    l^EADEE    OP   THE   PAETF. 

1868-1881. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  Irish  Resolutions — Mr.  Disraeli's  speech  on  the  Abys-^ 
sinian  war — General  Election  of  18G8 — Mr.  Disraeh's  speeches  in 
Opposition — Death  of  Lady  Beaconsfield — Refusal  to  take  office 


or  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
or 


LIFE    OF 

LOED    BEACONSFIELD 


CHAPTER   I. 

PE^-PAELIAMENTARY   PERIOD. 

1804-1837. 

Birth  and  boyhood — ^First  appearance  in  print — Vivian  Grey — Travels 
on  the  Continent — Letters  to  Sarah  Disraeli — Entrance  into 
Society — Literary  and  political  activity — Attempts  to  get  into 
Parliament — Popular  Toryism — The  Crisis  Examined — Quarrel 
with  O'Connell — Disraeli's  vindication  of  his  public  conduct — Rela- 
tions with  Hume — ^Disraeli  and  Lyndhurst — Elected  for  Maidstone 

Benjamin  Disraeli  was  born  in  London  on  the  21st 
of  December,  either  in  the  year  1804  or  1803,  the  son  of 
Isaac  Disraeli,  author  of  the  Curiosities  of  Literature^ 
and  Maria  Basevi,  sister  of  the  well-known  architect; 
but  whether  he  first  saw  the  light  in  Bloomsbury  Square, 
in  the  Adelphi,  or  in  King's  Road,  Gray's  Inn,  is  still 
uncertain.  It  is  proved  by  the  Parish  Hate  Book  that 
at  the  date  of  his  eldest  son's  birth  Isaac  Disraeli  was 
tenant  of  a  house  in  the  last-mentioned  street.  But 
against  this  is  to  be  set  the  direct  statement  made  by 

1 


2  LIFH  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD, 

Lord  Beaconsfield  himself  to  Lord  Barrington,  that  he 
was  born  '*  in  a  set  of  chambers  in  the  Adelphi  ";  and 
likewise  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Jones,  son  of  the  medical 
man  who  attended  Mrs.  Disraeli  at  the  time.     In  favour 
of  Bloomsbury  Square,  besides  the   local   tradition,  we 
have  merely  the  statement  that  when  Lord  Beaconsfield 
was  asked  if  he  was  born  there,  he  said  that  he  had  been 
told  so.     The  best  extant  account   of  his   own  family  is 
contained  in  his  Preface  to  an  edition  of  the  Curiosi/ies 
published  in  1849,  from  which  we  learn  that  his  ancestors, 
who  belonged  to  the  Sephardim,  or  purest  branch  of  the 
Jewish  race,  which  never  left   the  shores  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, were  driven  out  of  Spain  by  the  Inquisition, 
and  settled  in  Venice  at  the   end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury.     His  grandfather  came  to  England  in  1748,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen,  where  he  acquired  a  moderate  for- 
tune, and   died  at  Enfield  in  1817  at  the  age  of  ninety. 
Isaac  was  born  in  1766,  and  died  in  1848  at  Braden- 
ham   in    Buckinghamshire,   where  he  had   resided   for 
more  than  twenty  years.     The  future  statesman  was  one 
of  four  children,    three    sons    and   a  daughter,  one   of 
whom  alone,  Mr.  Ralph  Disraeli,  is  now  living.     Of  the 
other  brother,  I  am  not  aware  that  anything  is  known, 
beyond  the  circle   of  his   own   family ;    but  the  sister, 
Sarah  Disraeli,  has  lately   been  introduced  to  us  in  a 
series  of  very  interesting  letters,  to  which  reference  will 
frequently  be  made  in  this  narrative.      Benjamin,  who 
was  baptized  at  St.  Andrew's,  Holborn,  July  31,  1817, 
was  educated  at  a  school  kept  by  the  Rev.  John  Pot- 
ticarey  at  Blackheath,  where  he  was  popular  with  his 
schoolfellows,   who  usually  called   him  "Jack."      His 
favourite  game  was  *'  playing  at  horses,"  which  is  so  far 
curious  that  in  after  life  he   took  no  interest  whatever 
in  horses  or  anything  relating  to  them.      At  the  age 


FB^-PA  RLIAMENTAB  Y  PERIOD.  3 

of  seventeen  he  was  articled  to  Messrs.  Swain  and 
Stevenson,  solicitors  in  the  Old  Jewry,  where  he  gave 
such  promise  of  excellence,  that  his  master  recom- 
mended his  father  to  send  him  to  the  bar.  Of  this 
period  of  his  life  no  anecdotes  have  been  preserved ; 
but,  born  in  a  library,  as  he  used  to  say  of  himself, 
he  was  not  long  in  putting  his  literary  powers  to  the 
test. 

It  is  commonly  said  that  his  first  appearance  in  print 
was  in  the  Represetitative  newspaper,  brought  out  by 
Mr.  Murray  in  January  1826  ;  but  Mr,  Disraeli  himself 
denied  that  he  had  any  connection  with  it.  A  share  in 
the  Star  Chamber,  a  paper  which  appeared  every  Wed- 
nesday, between  the  19th  of  April  and  the  7th  of  June 
in  the  same  year,  has  also  been  attributed  to  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli, who  is  said  to  have  written  in  it  a  poem,  called 
the  "Modern  Dunciad,"  in  imitation  of  Pope.  But  as 
the  poem  is  extremely  poor,  and  as  Viviati  Grey,  which 
was  published  only  two  days  before  the  appearance  of 
the  Star  Chamber,  is  described  in  it  as  the  work  of  one 
who  "is  not  a  very  young  man,"  his  connection  with  this 
short-lived  periodical  must  still  remain  a  doubtful  point. 
Vivian  Grey  was  published  on  the  17th  or  18th  of 
April  1826,  and  established  his  reputation  at  a  single 
stroke.  But  whether  the  ignorance  of  its  author  professed 
by  the  writer  in  the  Star  Chamber  was  real  or  assumed, 
we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining. 

Satisfied  for  the  time  with  the  sensation  which  he 
had  created,  Mr.  Disraeli  seems  to  have  spent  the  next 
two  years  in  rambling  through  Italy,  Switzerland,  and 
parts  of  Greece.  But  the  Young  Duke  was  written 
before  the  passage  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Emancipation 
Bill  in  1829,  and  in  July  1830  we  find  Disraeli,  who 
was  then  at  Malta,  writing  to  his  sister  to  send  a  copy 

1   * 


4  LIFE  OF  LOED  BEAC0N8FIELB. 

of  the  book  to  Lady  Don,  the  wife   of  the  Governor  of 
Gibraltar,  which  place  Disraeli  had  just  quitted. 

He  had  started  from  England  a  second  time  on 
the  1st  of  June  1830,  and  it  was  now  that  he  began 
the  correspondence  with  his  sister  which  has  just  been 
mentioned,  extending  to  May  1831,  within  which 
space  of  time  he  visited  the  south  of  Spain,  Greece, 
Albania,  Constantinople,  the  Holy  Land,  and  Egypt. 
The  companions  of  his  journey  were  James  Clay  and 
William  Meredith,  of  whom  the  former  lived  to  be 
Liberal  Member  for  Hull,  and  a  well-known  personage 
both  in  Parliament  and  society ;  the  latter,  a  young  man 
of  the  highest  promise,  and  engaged  to  Mr.  Disraeli's 
sister,  died  at  Cairo,  on  his  way  back  to  England,  in 
1831.  The  friends,  however,  did  not  always  keep  to- 
gether, and  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time  Disraeli 
seems  to  have  been  alone.  His  letters  are  always 
piquant,  full  of  that  sprightly  and  playful  egotism, 
half  real  and  half  affected,  vrhich  was  peculiar  to  him- 
self. "jj^He  occasionally  appears  as  the  hero  of  rollick- 
ing adventures,  and  indulging  in  a  strain  of  jocularity 
dithcult  to  reconcile  with  the  calm  and  somewhat 
scornful  repose  which  was  the  habitual  expression  of  his 
features  in  more  advanced  years.  But  we  prefer  to  quote 
his  account  of  peaceful  life  and  society  at  Granada : — 

After  dinner  yon  take  your  siesta.  I  generally  sleep  for  two  hours. 
I  think  this  practice  conducive  to  health.  Old  people,  however,  are 
apt  to  carry  it  to  excess.  By  the  time  I  have  risen  and  arranged  my 
toilette  it  is  time  to  steal  out,  and  call  upon  any  agreeable  family 
■whose  Tei-tullia  you  may  choose  to  honour,  which  you  do,  after  the 
first  time^uninvited,  and  with  them  you  take  your  tea  or  chocolate. 
This  is  often  aUfresco,  under  the  piazza  or  colonnade  of  the  patio. 
Here  you  while  away  the  time  until  it  is  cool  enough  for  the  alameda 
or  public  walk.  At  Cadiz,  and  even  at  Seville  up  the  Guadalquivir, 
you  are  sure  of  a  delightful  breeze  from  the  water.  The  sea-breeze 
comes  like  a  spirit     The  effect  is  quite  magical.     As  you  are  lolling 


PB^.PABLIAMENTAET  PERIOD.  5 

in  listless  languor  in  the  hot  and  pei'fumed  air,  an  invisible  guest 
comes  dancing  into  the  party  and  touches  them  all  with  an  enchanted 
wand.  All  start,  all  smile.  It  has  come  ;  it  is  the  sea-breeze.  Thero 
is  much  discussion  whether  it  is  as  strong,  or  whether  weaker  than 
the  night  before.  The  ladies  furl  their  fans  and  seize  their  mantillas, 
the  cavaliers  stretch  their  legs  and  give  signs  of  life.  All  rise.  I 
offer  my  ann  to  Dolores  or  Florentina  (is  not  this  familiarity 
strange?),  and  in  ten  minutes  you  are  in  the  alameda.  What  a 
change  I  All  is  now  hfe  and  liveliness.  Such  bowing,  such  kissing, 
such  fluttering  of  fans,  such  gentle  criticism  of  gentle  friends  I  but 
the  fan  is  the  most  wonderful  part  of  the  whole  scene.  A  Spanish 
lady  with  her  fan  might  shame  the  tactics  of  a  troop  of  horse.  Now 
she  unfurls  it  with  the  slow  pomp  and  conscious  elegance  of  a  peacock. 
Now  she  flutters  it  with  all  the  languor  of  a  listless  beauty,  now 
with  all  the  liveliness  of  a  vivacious  one.  Now,  in  the  midst  of  a 
very  tornado,  she  closes  it  with  a  whir  which  makes  \^ou  start,  pop  I 
In  the  midst  of  your  confusion  Dolores  taps  you  on  the  elbow.  You 
turn  round  to  listen,  and  Florentina  pokes  you  in  your  side.  Magical 
instrument  I  You  know  that  it  speaks  a  particular  language,  and 
gallantry  requires  no  other  mode  to  express  its  most  subtle  conceits 
or  its  most  unreasonable  demands  than  this  slight,  delicate  organ 
But  remember,  while  you  read,  that  here,  as  in  England,  it  is  not  con- 
fined alone  to  your  delightful  sex.  I  also  have  my  fan,  which  makes 
my  cane  extremely  jealous.  If  you  think  I  have  grown  extraordinarily 
effeminate,  learn  that  in  this  scorching  clime  the  soldier  will  not 
mount  guard  without  one.  Night  wears  on,  we  sit,  we  take  a  panal, 
which  is  as  quick  work  as  snapdi-agon,  and  far  more  elegant ;  again 
we  stroll.  Midnight  clears  the  public  walks,  and  but  few  Spanish 
families  retire  till  two.  A  solitary  bachelor  like  myself  still  wanders, 
or  still  lounges  on  a  bench  in  the  warm  moonlight.  The  last  guitar 
dies  away,  the  cathedral  clock  wakes  up  j'our  reverie,  you  too  seek 
your  couch,  and  amid  a  gentle,  sweet  flow  of  loveliness,  and  light, 
and  music,  and  fresh  air,  thus  dies  a  day  in  Spain. 

Disraeli  as  well  as  Pope  could  make  the  same  ideas 
serve  his  purpose  twice,  as  the  above  description  figures 
again  in  Contariiii  Fleming, 

The  last  letter  of  this  series  is  dated  from  Cairo,  May 
28tli,  1831,  giving  an  account  of  a  voyage  up  the  Nile 
as  far  as  Nubia,  and  the  next  we  hear  of  him  is  from 
his  lodgings  in  Duke  Street,  St.  James',  February  18th, 
1832. 


6  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BFAC0N8FIELD. 

Disraeli  was  now  about  to  make  his  entry  into 
London  society,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  distrust  his 
own  account  of  the  reception  which  he  met  with.  The 
second  series  of  letters  to  his  sister,  extending  from 
1832  to  1852,  is  our  chief  authority  on  this  point,  and 
they  clearly  show  that  he  mingled  with  people  of  the 
highest  rank  at  as  early  an  age  as  most  men  who  are 
not  born  in  the  purple.  His  father's  reputation  and 
his  own,  combined  with  the  fact  that  he  had  travelled 
in  countries  then  but  little  known  to  Englishmen,  were 
sufficient  at  once  to  secure  him  an  introduction  to  that 
border  land  in  which  literature  and  fashion  meet;  and 
having  secured  his  footing  so  far,  he  did  the  rest  for 
himself.  In  1833  he  dines  with  Lord  and  Lady  St. 
Maur.  In  the  following  year  Lady  Tankerville,  who 
shared  with  Lady  Jersey  the  leadership  of  the  fashion- 
able world,  admits  him  to  Almack's.  He  is  intimate 
with  Lady  Chesterfield  and  Lady  Londonderry.  In 
1836,  before  he  was  a  Member  of  Parliament,  he  was 
elected  at  the  Carlton,  and,  in  fact,  there  is  over- 
whelming evidence  to  show  that  the  critics  who  sneered 
at  his  portraits  of  lords  and  ladies  in  Co?iingsbi/  and 
Si/hi/y  as  being  drawn  exclusively  from  his  own  imagi- 
ntition,  only  showed  their  own  ignorance  of  that  great 
world  which  had  long  before  thrown  open  its  doors  to 
him. 

Disraeli,  however,  makes  no  secret  of  his  position. 
So  far  from  disguising  the  fact  that  he  has  won  his  own 
way  into  the  charmed  circle,  instead  of  having  taken  his 
place  in  it  from  the  first  as  his  natural  and  proper 
sphere,  the  language  in  which  he  writes  of  his  social 
successes  proclaim  it  with  almost  boyish  exultation. 
He  writes  like  a  youthful  conqueror,  marching  from 
victory  to  victory,  and  every  fresh  card  of  invitation  is 


PBJE-FAELIAMENTARY  PEEIOD.  7 

a  fresh  certificate  of  his  prowess.  Of  the  style  in  which 
he  boasts  of  the  attention  that  was  paid  to  him  by  the 
great,  bad  it  been  intended  for  any  other  eyes  than 
those  of  the  little  circle  at  Bradenham,  the  good  taste 
might  perhaps  be  called  in  question.  But  the  letters  were 
written  to  a  sister;  and  much  that  might  otherwise  be 
set  down  to  intoxicated  vanity,  may  fairly  be  attributed 
to  the  desire  to  amuse,  and  possibly  to  divert  her  mind 
from  brooding  over  recent  troubles. 
^  It  was  soon  after  his  plunge  into  the  world  of  fashion 
that  he  first  met,  at  Lytton  Bulwer's,  in  April  1832,  his 
future  wife,  Mrs.  Wyndham  Lewis,  whom  he  describes 
as  "  a  pretty  little  woman,  a  flirt,  and  a  rattle  ;  indeed, 
gifted  with  a  volubility  I  should  think  unequalled,  and 
of  which  I  can  convey  no  idea.  She  told  me  she  liked 
*  silent,  melancholy  men.'  I  observed  that  I  had  no 
doubt  of  it."  It  was  about  this  time,  also,  that  he  met 
Lord  Melbourne  at  Mrs.  Norton's,  and  when  Melbourne 
enquired  how  he  could  serve  him,  replied  that  he  desired 
to  be  Prime  Minister.  It  is  quite  clear  that  he  had 
already  made  his  mark  in  society,  and  was  a  familiar 
figure  in  some  of  the  best  London  drawing-rooms  several 
years  before  he  entered  Parliament. 
^  The  five  years  which  lie  between  1832,  when  Disraeli 
returned  to  England,  and  1837,  when  he  became  mem- 
ber of  the  House  of  Commons,  present  a  tangled  skein 
to  the  biographer.  They  are  the  five  years  of  his 
greatest  literary  industry,  and  they  are  also  five  years  of 
incessant  political  activity,  during  which  it  must  often 
have  seemed  doubtful  to  himself  whether  politics  or 
letters  were  to  be  his  ultimate  passport  to  immortality. 
Novels,  essays  and  poems,  speeches,  addresses,  and 
personal  controversies  pour  upon  us  in  such  quick 
succession,  and  so  frequently  solicit  our  attention  at  the 


8  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELJ). 

same  moment,  that  it  is  perhaps  better  to  keep  the  two 
threads  distinct,  and  reserve  all  notice  of  the  purely 
literary  works  which  he  published  during  this  period  till 
we  come  to  consider  his  literary  position  by  itself.  Our 
space  will  thus  be  left  clear  for  the  continuous  treatment 
of  his  public  life  during  its  most  complicated  and  ambi- 
guous stage,  of  which,  however,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
that  we  should  form  some  clear  idea,  if  we  would  either 
comprehend  or  do  justice  to  the  principles  by  which  his 
subsequent  career  was  regulated. 

On  the  22nd  of  February  1832,  Disraeli  writes  to  his 
sister :  "  I  think  peers  will  be  created,  and  Charles 
Gore  has  promised  to  let  me  have  timely  notice  if 
Baring  be  one,'^  Mr.  Thomas  Baring  was  then  the 
member  for  High  Wycombe,  the  seat  on  which  Disraeli 
iiad  his  eye,  and  when,  a  few  months  afterwards,  the 
expected  peerage  was  conferred  upon  him,  the  young 
aspirant  issued  his  address.  His  opponent  was  Colonel 
Grey,  the  son  of  the  Prime  Minister ;  and  Disraeli, 
whose  home  was  now  at  Bradenham,  only  a  few  miles 
from  Wycombe,  came  forward  as  the  local  candidate. 
Disraeli,  who,  at  this  time,  declared  his  sole  principle  of 
action  to  be  opposition  to  the  Whigs,  considered  himself 
justified  in  accepting  assistance  from  all  who  agreed 
with  him  on  this  point,  whatever  their  opinion  on  other 
matters.  Lytton  Bulwer,  at  that  time  his  great  friend, 
and  a  strong  Radical,  applied  to  Daniel  O^Connell  and 
Mr.  Hume  to  know  whether  they  had  any  interest  in 
the  constituency.  They  replied  that  they  had  none, 
but  in  terms  sufficiently  complimentary  to  induce  Mr. 
Disraeli's  committee  to  print  their  letters.  But  Mr. 
Disraeli  was  neither  a  Radical  nor  a  Home  Ruler. 
He  had  told  O'Connell  that  he  could  not  listen  to  the 
Repeal  of  the  Union ;  and  on  this  question  there  could 


PEJE-PABLIAMENTABY  FEKWD.  9 

be  no  doubt.  Whether  he  had  been  equally  explicit  with 
Joseph  Hume  remains  uncertain.  Hume  himself  may 
naturally  have  supposed  that  the  advocate  of  the  Ballot 
and  Triennial  Parliaments  was  a  Radical  all  round. 
But  Disraeli  said  nothing  to  confirm  this  opinion  in  his- 
speeches  or  addresses.  He  declared  himself  even  then 
a  staunch  supporter  of  the  Established  Church,  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  our  territorial  constitution ;  and, 
as  we  shall  see,  he  did  not  get  the  Radical  vote  a  second 
time. 

He  had,  in  fact,  fashioned  out  a  creed  for  himself, 
which  he  never  appears  to  have  renounced.  He  tried 
to  fit  the  Toryism  of  1730  to  the  circumstances  of  1832; 
but  notwithstanding  some  points  of  resemblance  which 
are  more  than  superficial,  there  are  fundamentarpoints  df 
difference  between  the  two  periods  which  rob  all  fiis  ana4 
logics,  however  interesting  and  original,  of  that  elementj 
of  actuality  which  is  necessary  to  give  them  any  loqu^' 
standi  in  the  domain  of  practical  politics.  In  each  case 
a  revolution  had  been  effected  by  the  Whigs,  of  which 
the  real  and  the  ostensible  motives  were  not  the  same. 
In  each  case  it  seemed  that  a  great  party  triumph  had 
been  won  from  which  the  people  were  to  gain  but  little,"^ 
and  on  each  occasion  there  may  have  appeared  to  be 
some  real  danger  lest  the  balance  of  power  should 
be  destroyed.  But  the  change  of  dynasty  in  1688  was 
a  patrician  revolution.  The  Reform  Bill  of  1832  was  a 
popular  revolution.  The  Whigs  may  have  turned  it  to 
their  own  account.  But  the  impulse  came  from  below. 
And  when  Mr.  Disraeli  raised  the  banner  of  popular 
Toryism,  recent  events  were  too  fresh  in  men's  minds  to 
make  it  seem  otherwise  than  fantastic.     Down  to  the 

•  Mr.  Gladstone's  Gleanings  of  Fast  Years ^  vol.  i.  p.  148. 


10  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD, 

end  of  the  war  the  Tories  undouhtedly  had  been   the 
popular  party  as  well  as  the  monarchical  party.     Even 
after  that  time  their  administration  has  been  much  mis- 
represented.    But  their  resistance   to   the  Keform  Bill 
was  a  fact  which   nobody  could  get  over.     Appeals  to 
Bolingbroke  and  Wyndham  fell  flat-  on  men's  ears  who 
saw  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord  Lyndhurst,  and 
Sir    Robert  Peel  and  Mr.   Croker  walking   about  the 
streets  of  London,  and  even  then   perhaps  engaged   in 
some  plot  against  "  the  people's  rights."     The  revival 
was  premature.     A  few  years  later,  when  the  air  began 
to  clear,  and   the  passions  of  1832  to  lose  their  bitter- 
ness, the  elements  of  truth  which  Mr.  Disraeli's  theory 
contained  had  a  betterchance  of  being  appreciated;  and 
Young  England  ideas  made  a  place  for  themselves  in  our 
political  system.      But  when  the  author  of  them  first 
stood  for  riigh  Wycombe  they  were  totally  unintelligible. 
It  may   be   doubted,   however,  whether  they  did   not 
serve  Mrp  Disraeli's  purpose  just  as  well  as  if  they  had 
been    more    generally    comprehended.      He    could    not 
have  carried   jbhe  seat  whatever  he  had  said ;   and  his 
political  opinions  had  the  great  merit  of  originality.     If 
they  did  not  win  him   the  suffrages  of  Wycombe,  they 
secured   for  him  the  friendship    of    Lord    Lyndhurst, 
and  enlisted  the  admiration  of  even  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
who,  on  reading  the    Vindication  of  the  British   Con- 
stitution, in  December  1836,  said  that  he  was  gratified 
mid   surprised   to  find  that  a  familiar  and  apparently 
exhausied  topic  could  be  treated  with  so  much  of  original 
force  of  argument  and  novelty  of  illustration. 

It  was  at  the  general  election  in  November  1832, 
when  Mr.  Disraeli  again  stood  for  Wycombe,  that  he 
explained  more  clearly  what  he  meant  by  popular 
Toryism,  and  denied   its  affinity   to  Radicalism.     But 


pbjE-parltamentaey  period.        11 

he  had  lost  the  confidence  of  the  Radicals,  and  was  of 
course  defeated.  In  1833  he  consented  to  stand  for 
Marylebone,  but,  the  expected  vacancy  not  occurring, 
he  was  delivered  from  the  embarrassing  position  in 
which  the  contest  certainly  would  have  placed  him.  A 
story  was  current  at  the  time,  that  being  asked  by  a 
Marylebone  elector  on  what  he  intended  to  stand,  he 
replied,  "  upon  his  head."  But  he  himself  seems  to 
have  treated  it  as  an  invention  of  the  newspapers. 
With  1834  came  the  famous  crisis  which  he  has  depicted 
with  such  vivacity  in  Coningshy,  and  which,  oddly 
enough,  from  a  letter  to  his  sister  of  June  4th,  he  himself 
seems  to  have  foreseen.  "My  own  opinion  is  that  in 
the  recess  the  King  will  make  an  effort  to  try  and  form 
a  Conservative  Government  with  Peel  and  Stanley.'* 
This  is  exactly  what  occurred  when  the  death  of  Lord 
Spencer  raised  Lord  Althorp  to  the  Lords,  and  deprived 
the  House  of  Commons  of  its  leader :  and  wiien  it 
became  obvious  that  a  dissolution  must  take  place,  he 
for  a  third  time  issued  an  address  to  the  electors  of  the 
little  Buckinghamshire  borough.  He  had  no  better  suc- 
cess than  before,  but  his  speech  of  December  16th  was 
republished  under  the  title  of  the  Crisis  Examined, 
and  is  worth  reading,  if  only  for  the  very  characteristic 
observations  to  be  found  in  it  on  the  duties  and  position 
of  a  statesman. 


The  people  [he  says]  were  content  to  accept  the  Reform  Bill 
as  a  great  remedial  measure  which  they  had  often  demanded, 
and  which  had  been  often  denied,  and  they  did  not  choose  to  scan  too 
severely  the  previous  conduct  of  those  who  conceded  it  to  them. 
They  did  not  go  about  saying,  "  We  must  have  reform,  but  we  will 
not  have  it  from  Lord  Palmerston,  because  he  is  the  child  of  corrup- 
tion, born  of  Downing  Street,  and  engendered  in  the  Treasury,  a 
second-rate  official  for  twenty  years  under  a  succession  of  Tory 
Governments,  but  a  Secretary  of  State  under  the  Whigs."     Not  they, 


12  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAGONSFIELD. 

indeed  I  The  people  returned  Lord  Palmerston  in  triumph  for  Hamp- 
shire, and  pennies  were  subscribed  to  present  him  with  testimonials 
of  popular  applause.  The  people  then  took  reform  as  some  other 
people  take  stolen  goods,  «  and  no  questions  asked."  The  Cabinet  of 
Lord  Grey  was  not  ungenerously  twitted  with  the  abandonment  of 
principles  which  the  country  had  given  up,  and  to  which  no  man 
could  adhere  who  entertained  the  slightest  hope  of  rendering  him- 
self an  effective  public  servant.  The  truth  is,  gentlemen,  a  states- 
man is  the  creature  of  his  age,  the  child  of  circumstances,  the 
^'^^eatlon^orh^^  cha- 

raHeFrandTwhen  he  is  calleH  upontoTake  office,  "hels  not  to  inquire 
what  his  opinions  mTgFt"~brlnTght  not  have  been  upon  this  or  that 
subjetrt-rhe  IS  only  to  ascertain  the  needful  and  the  beneficial,  and 
the- most'  feasible  measures  "are  to^  be  carried  on.  The  fact  is,  the 
conducTand  t'Ee"opinions  of  public  men  at  different  periods  of  their 
career  must  not  be  too  curiously  contrasted  in  a  free  and  aspiring 
country.  The  people  have  their  passions,  and  it  is  even  the  duty 
of  public  men  occasionally  to  adopt  sentiments  with  which  they  do 
not  sympathise,  because  the  people  must  have  leaders.  Then  the 
opinions  and  prejudices  of  the  Crown  must  necessarily  influence  a 
rising  statesman.  I  say  nothing  of  the  weight  which  great  establish- 
ments and  corporations,  and  the  necessity  of  their  support  and 
patronage,  must  also  possess  with  an  ambitious  politician.  All  this, 
however,  produces  ultimate  benefit ;  all  these  influences  tend  to  form' 
that  eminently  practical  character  for  which  our  countrymen  are 
celebrated.  I  laugh,  therefore,  at  the  objection  against  a  man,  that 
at  a  former  period  of  his  careeijeaTvocated^poircy  differ  to"  his 
present  one.  All  I  seek  to  ascertain  is  whether  his  present  pohc^Jbe 
just^__nccessary,~expedIent7~wh6tfaCT^  he  is 

preparedTo^rve  the  country;  iccording  tolts  presenfnecessities. 

The  dissolution  of  Parliament  in  January  1835  did 
not  give  Sir  Robert  Peel  an  absolute  majority,  and  in 
the  following  April  he  resigned  office,  and  made  way 
for  the  return  of  Lord  iMelbourne.  Mr.  Labouehere, 
the  new  Master  of  the  Mint,  on  seeking  re-election  at 
Taunton,  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Disraeli,  who  in  the 
course  of  his  canvass,  gave  that  provocation  to 
O'Connell  which  the  agitator  never  forgave.  In  a 
speech,  of  which  no  report  has  been  preserved,  Mr. 
Disraeli  said  that  the  Whigs  had  "grasped   the  bloody 


FBJE-PABLIAMENTABY  PERIOD.  13 

hand  of  O'Connell."  The  meaning  of  this  was  that  the 
Whigs,  who  had  themselves  accused  O'Connell  of 
treasonable  and  rebellious  practices,  had  now  stooped  to 
solicit  his  assistance.  The  attack  was  upon  the  Whigs, 
not  upon  O'Connell ;  but  when  the  words  found  their 
way  into  a  London  paper,  the  latter  chose  to  accept  it 
as  a  personal  offence,  and,  in  a  speech  made  soon  after- 
wards at  Dublin,  stigmatised  Disraeli  as  the  descendant 
of  the  impenitent  thief.  Mr.  O'Connell  having  killed 
a  man  in  a  duel,"^  had  declared  that  nothing  hence- 
forth should  induce  him  to  fight  another.  But  Mr. 
Morgan  O'Connell,  who,  in  the  previous  May,  had 
acted  as  his  father's  representative  in  a  duel  with  Lord 
Alvanley,  whom  O'Connell  had  called  a  "bloated 
buffoon,"  was  at  once  challenged  by  Mr.  Disraeli  in  a 
letter  dated  from  Park  Street,  Grosvenor  Square,  May 
6th,  1835.  The  son  declined  to  fight  in  the  father's 
quarrel  a  second  time,  and  so  far  Disraeli  came  out 
of  the  affair  with  flying  colours.  But  in  the  news- 
paper controversy  which  followed  he  does  not  show 
to  equal  advantage.  The  whole  story  of  his  con- 
nection with  Hume  and  O'Connell  in  1832  was,  of 
course,  raked  up  against  him,  combined  with  taunts  and 
insinuations  which  evidently  stung  him  to  the  quick; 
and  in  his  retorts  upon  the  editor  of  the  Globe,  who 
was  the  chief  offender,  he  loses  his  temper,  and  in- 
dulges in  a  species  of  vituperation,  of  which  we  may  at 
least  say  what  he  said  of  one  of  his  own  assailants  many 
years  afterwards,  that  *'  it  wants  finish." 

All  Disraeli's  letters  on  this  subject  appeared  in  the 
Times,  and  though  the  personal  abuse  contained  in  them 

*  Mr.  Esterre,  a  member  of  the  Dublin  Corporation,  who  challenged 
O'Connell  for  calling  the  corporation  "  beggarly." 


14  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELB. 

borders  upon  Billingsgate,  still,  in  one  letter,  of  the 
31st  of  December  1835,  is  to  be  read  the  best  vindication 
ofthe  writer's  public  conduct  down  to  that  date,  which 
is  anywhere  to  be  found.  My  readers  will,  perhaps, 
thank  me  for  the  following  brilliant  specimen  of  it,' 
in  which  he  anticipates  Coningshy, 

I  was  absent  from  England  during  the  discussions  on  the  Reform 
Bill.     The  Bill  was  virtually,  though  not  formally,  passed  when  I 
returned  to  my  country  in  the  spring  of  1832.     Far  from  that  scene 
of  discord  and  dissension,  unconnected  with  its  parties,  and  untouched 
by  its  passions,  viewing  as  a  whole  what  all  had  witnessed  only  in  the 
fiery  passage  of  its  intense  and  alarming  details,  events  have  proved 
with  all  humihty  be  it  spoken,  that  the  opinion  I  formed  of  that  mea- 
sure on  my  arrival  was  more  correct  than  the  one  commonly  adopted. 
I  found  the  nation  in  terror  of  a  rampant  democracy.      I  saw  only  an 
impending  oligarchy.    I  found  the  House  of  Commons  packed,  and  the 
independence  of  the  House  of  Lords  announced  as  terminated.     I  re- 
cognised a  repetition  of  the  same  oligarchical  (oup  d'etat  ivom  which  we 
had  escaped  by  a  miracle  little  more  than  a  century  before;  therefore 
I  determined  to  the  utmost  of  my  power  to  oppose  the  Whigs.      Why 
then,  it  may  be  asked,  did  I  not  join  the  Tories  ?    Because  I  found  the 
Tories  in  a  state  of  ignorant  stupefaction.      The  Whigs  had  assured 
them  that  they  were  annihilated,  and  they  believed  them.     They  had 
not  a  single  definite  or  intelligible  idea  as  to  their  position  or  their 
duties  or  the  character  of  their  party.     They  were  haunted  with  a 
nervous  apprehension  of  that  great  bugbear  "  the  people,"  that  be- 
wildering title  under  which  a  miserable  minority  contrives  to  coerce 
and  plunder  a  nation.       They  were  ignorant  that  the  millions  of  that 
nation  required  to  be  guided    and    encouraged,  and   that  they  were 
that  nation's  natural  leaders,  bound  to  marshal  and  to  enlighten  them 
The  Tories  trembled  at  a  coming  anarchy  :  what  they  had  to  appro" 
hend  was  a  rigid  tyranny.      They  fancied  themselves  *on  the  eve  of  a 
reign  of  terror,  when  they  were  about  to  sink  under  the  sovereignty 
of  a  Council  of  Ten.      Even    that    illustrious    man,  who,  after  con- 
quering the  Peninsula,  ought  to  deem  nothing  impossible,  announced 
that  the  Kmg's  Government  could  not  be  carried  on.     The  Tories  in 
1832  were  avowedly  no  longer  a  practical  party  ;  thev  had  no  system 
and  no  object ;  they  were  passive  and  forlorn.      They  took  their  seats 
in  the  House  of  Commons  after  the  Reform  Act  as  the  Senate  in  the 
Forum  when  the  city  was  entered  by  the  Gauls,  only  to  die. 


PB^-PABLIAMENTAEY  PERIOD,  15 

He  then  goes  on  to  say : — 

I  challenge  anyone  to  quote  any  speech  I  have  ever  made,  or  one 
line  I  have  ever  written,  hostile  to  the  institutions  of  the  country. 
On  the  contrary,  I  have  never  omitted  any  opportunity  of  showing 
that  on  the  maintenance  of  those  institutions  the  liberties  of  the  nation 
depended ;  that  if  the  Crown,  the  Church,  the  House  of  Lords,  the 
Corporations,  the  Magistracy,  the  Poor  Laws,  were  successfully 
attacked,  we  should  fall,  as  once  before  we  nearly  fell,  under  a  grinding 
oligarchy,  and  inevitably  be  governed  by  a  metropolis.  It  is  true  that 
I  avowed  myself  the  supporter  of  triennial  Parliaments,  and  for  the 
same  reasons  as  Sir  William  Wyndham,  the  leader  of  the  Tories 
against  Walpole,  because  the  House  of  Commons  had  just  been  recon- 
structed for  factious  purposes  by  the  Reform  Act,  as  in  the  days  of 
the  Septennial  Bill:  I  thought  with  Sir  William  Wyndham,  whose 
speech  I  quoted  to  the  electors,  that  the  Whig  power  could  only  be 
shaken  by  frequent  elections.  Well,  has  the  result  proved  the  shal- 
lowness of  my  views  ?  What  has  shaken  the  power  of  the  Whigs  to 
the  centre  ?  The  general  election  of  this  year.  What  will  destroy  the 
power  of  the  Whigs  ?  The  general  election  of  the  next.  It  is  true 
that  I  avowed  myself  a  supporter  of  the  principle  of  the  ballot.  Sir 
William  Wyndham  did  not  do  this,  because  in  his  time  the  idea  was 
not  in  existence,  but  he  would,  I  warrant  it,  have  been  as  hearty  a 
supporter  of  the  ballot  as  myself,  if  with  his  principles  he  had  been 
standing  on  the  hustings  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1882,  with  the  third 
estate  of  the  realm  reconstructed  for  factious  purposes  by  the  Whigs, 
the  gentlemen  of  England  excluded  from  their  own  chamber,  a 
number  of  paltry  little  towns  enfranchised  with  the  privilege  of 
returning  as  many  members  to  Parliament  as  the  shires  of  this  day, 
and  the  nomination  of  these  members  placed  in  a  small  knot  of  hard- 
hearted sectarian  rulers,  opposed  to  everj-thing  noble  and  rational,  and 
exercising  an  usurious  influence  over  the  petty  tradesmen  who  are 
their  slaves  and  their  victims. 

**  More  than  three  years  after  this,**  he  continues — 

came  my  contest  at  Taunton  against  the  Master  of  the  Mint,  to  which 
the  editor  of  the  Globe  has  alluded.  I  came  forward  on  that  occasion 
on  precisely  the  same  principles  on  which  I  had  offered  myself  at 
Wycombe ;  but  my  situation  was  different.  I  was  no  longer  an 
independent  and  isolated  member  of  the  political  world.  I  had  felt 
it  my  duty  to  become  an  earnest  partisan.  The  Tory  party  had  in 
this  interval  roused  itself  from  its  lethargy ;  it  had  profited  by  ad- 
versity ;  it  had  regained  not  a  little  of   its    original  character   and 


16  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIFLD. 

primary  spirit;  it  had  begun  to  remember,  or  to  discover,  that  it  was 
the  national  party  of  the  country ;  it  recognised  its  duty  to  place 
itself  at  the  head  of  the  nation ;  it  professed  the  patriotic  principles 
of  Sir  William  Wyndham  and  Lord  Bolingbroke,  in  whose  writings  I 
have  ever  recognised  the  most  pure  and  the  profoundest  sources  of 
political  and  constitutional  wisdom;  underthe  guidance  of  an  eloquent 
and  able  leader,  the  principles  of  primitive  Toryism  had  again  de- 
veloped themselves  and  the  obsolete  associations  which  form  no 
essential  portion  of  that  great  patriotic  scheme  had  been  ably  and 
effectively  discarded.  In  the  great  struggle  I  joined  the  party  with 
whom  I  sympathised,  and  continued  to  oppose  the  faction  to  which 
had  ever  been  adverse.  But  I  did  not  avow  my  intention  of  no  longer 
supporting  the  questions  of  short  Parliaments  and  the  Ballot,  merely 
because  the  party  to  which  I  had  attached  myself  was  unfavourable 
to  those  measures,  though  that,  in  my  opinion  as  to  the  discipline  of 
political  questions,  would  have  been  a  sufficient  reason.  I  ceased  to 
advocate  them  because  they  had  ceased  to  be  necessary.  The  pur- 
poses for  which  they  had  been  proposed  were  obtained.  The  power 
of  the  Whigs  was  reduced  to  a  wholesome  measure ;  the  balance  of 
parties  in  the  State  was  restored ;  the  independence  of  the  House 
of  Lords  preserved.  Perpetual  change  in  the  political  arrangements  of 
countries  of  such  a  complicated  civilization  as  England  is  so  great  an 
evil,  that  nothing  but  a  clear  necessity  can  justify  a  recourse  to  it. 

In  the  second  of  these  extracts  peeps  out  Disraeli's 
favourite  theory,  that  one  object  of  the  Reform  BilJ 
was  to  destroy  the  legitimate  influence  of  the  country 
gentlemen.^  But  before  concluding  this  passage  of  his 
life,  it  remains  to  notice  what  passed  between  himself 
and  his  critics  on  the  subject  of  his  relations  with 
Mr.  Hume.  It  amounts  to  no  more  than  this — that 
Mr.  Hume  very  naturally  did  not  understand  the 
new  Toryism  which  Mr.  Disraeli  had  adopted,  and 
supposed  that  everyone  who  supported  the  changes 
which  he  advocated  bimself,  did  so  with  the  same 
object.  He  could  make  no  approach  to  the  point  of 
view  from  which  the  Ballot  and  Triennial  Parliaments 

*  Vide  Vindication  of  British  Constitution  and  Spirit  of  Whiggism, 
passim. 


pbjE-parliamentaby  period.       17 

seemed  favourable  to  Toryism^  and,  excusably,  there- 
fore, when  Mr.  Disraeli  announced  himself  a  Tory, 
thought  he  had  been  deceived.  Mr.  Hume's  memory 
played  him  false  in  some  particulars,  as,  for  instance, 
in  supposing  that  he  had  an  interview  with  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli in  Bryanston  Square  in  1833,  when  the  latter 
made  a  personal  declaration  of  his  principles.  Mr. 
Disraeli  called  during  his  canvass  for  Marylebone, 
but  only  saw  Mr.  Hume's  private  secretary,  that  gen- 
tleman himself  being  confined  to  his  bed.  But  these 
details  are  of  little  consequence.  The  general  conclu- 
clusion  is  that  Mr.  Disraeli  was  mistaken  by  the  Radi- 
cals for  one  of  themselves,  because  they  did  not  know 
that  what  was  a  Radical  measure  in  1832  had  been  a 
Tory  one  in  1734,  and  that  it  was  possible  to  be  in 
favour  of  the  ballot  without  being  an  enemy  to  the 
Constitution.  That  Mr.  Disraeli  took  advantage  of 
their  ignorance  is,  perhaps,  the  worst  that  can  be  said 
of  him.  But  we  gladly  turn  from  what  is,  after  all, 
•but  an  ambiguous  phase  in  his  career,  to  the  days,  now 
rapidly  approaching,  when  he  should  appear  in  his 
true  colours,  as  the  preacher  of  a  new  creed  and 
the  founder  of  a  new  party. 

His  correspondence  at  this  time  is  full  of  Lord 
Lyndhurst,  whom  he  regarded  as  his  political  chief, 
and  who  seems  to  have  been  the  only  man  of  any  note 
who  really  tried  to  understand  what  he  meant.  Lynd- 
hurst occasionally  went  down  to  Bradenham,  and  seems 
to  have  enjoyed  a  r.amble  among  the  Cliilterns  with 
his  eccentric  young  proteye^  who  probably  told  the 
older  man  a  good  deal  that  he  did  not  know  before. 
The  two  had  much  in  common.  Both  were  daring  to 
the  verge  of  recklessness,  cool,  and  self-reliant — 
"pleased  with   the  danger  when  the  waves  ran   high." 

2 


18  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEACONS  FIELD. 

Both  came  to  the  consideration  of  English  politics  with 
comparatively  open  minds,  and  both  had  arrived  at  con- 
clusions eminently  unfavourable  to  the  Whigs. 

The  year  1836  passed  away.     Henrietta  Temple  had 
been    out    some  time,  and   Vetietia    was  just    finished, 
when  it  was  announced  that  William  IV.'  was  suffering 
one  of  his  customary  attacks  of  hay  fever.     Those  who 
were  behind  the  scenes  knew  better,  and  began  to  pre- 
pare  for  a  Dissolution.     After  lingering,   the   centre  of 
hopes  and  fears,  for  some  weeks,   William  IV.  expired 
early  in  the  morning  of  the  20th  of  June  1837.     Parlia- 
ment was  dissolved  on  the  18th  of  July,  and  Mr.  Disraeli 
was  returned  for  Maidstone  in  companv  with  Mr.  Wynd- 
bara  Lewis,  on  the  27th.     Mr.  Lewis  polled  707  votes 
Disraeli  616,  and  Colonel  Thompson,   the  Liberal  can- 
didate,  412.      Disraeli    had  now  got   his   foot  in    the 
stirrup,  and  his  boast  of  1833  was  to  be  put  to  the  test, 
"  Heard  Macauhiy's    best    speech,    Shiel,    and   Charles 
Grant.     Macaulay  admirable  ;  but,  between  ourselves,  I 
could  floor  them  all.     This  entre  rwm,     I  never  was 
more  certain  of  anything  than  that  J  could  carry  every- 
thing before  me  in  that  House."*     His  chance  had  now 
come  to   him  ;  as,    according  to   himself,  it  comes    to 
every  man,  if  he  can  only   wait.     He  was  to  take  his 
seat  among  the  men  whom  the  country  looked  up  to  as 
its  leaders,  and   measure  himself  against  them  ;  and  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  his  wonderful  self-confidence  was 
justified.       In    writing    of    Addison,    Thackeray    says, 
*  You  could  hardly   show  him  an  essay,  a  sermon,    or  a 
poem,  but  he  felt  he  could  do  it  better."     And,  sitting 
in  judgment  on  Disraeli's  overweening  self-esteem,  we 
must  make  allowance  for  that  consciousness  of  genius 

♦  Letter  to  his  sister,  Feb.  7,  1833, 


PB^.PABLIAMENTABY  PERIOD.  19 

which  told  him  of  his  own  superiority,  and  *'  prophesied 
of  his  glory,'^  even  through  the  mists  of  failure. 
Seeing  w])athe  really  was,  we  must  feel  that  these  bubbles 
of  egotism  welled  up  from  intellectual  depths  which 
the  world  had  not  yet  fathomed;  and  though  it  took  a 
rather  exceptionable  form,  in  substance  it  was  far  from 
unwarrantable. 


2  * 


20  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEAGOJsSFIELD. 


CHAPTEK  II. 

THE    GEEAT    CONSEBVATIYE    PARTY. 

1837-1843. 

State  of  Parties  in  1837— Disraeli's  maiden  speech— Evidence  as  to 
its  merits— Position  in  the  House— The  Bedchamber  plot— The 
Chartist  Petition— Disraeli's  marriage— Change  in  his  circum- 
stances— Dissolution  of  1841— Disraeli  returned  for  Shrewsbury 
— Exposition  of  his  views  on  Protection. 

DiSEAELi  took  his  seat  in  tlie  House  of  Commons  on 
the  15th  of  November  1837,  on  the  second  bench  just 
behind  Sir  Robert  Peel.  The  state  of  parties  at 'this 
time  has  been  so  accurately  described  by  himself  in  his 
political  novels  that  the  reader  who  is  curious  about  it 
will  do  well  to  consult  them  for  himself.  Within  two 
years  of  the  meeting  of  the  first  Reformed  Parliament 
the  Whigs  had  run  through  nearly  all  the  popularity 
which  that  measure  had  acquired  for  them  ;  and  after 
the  General  Election  of  1835  the  Tory  party,  which  had 
apparently  been  annihilated,  rose  from  its  ashes  in  num- 
bers far  from  contemptible,  in  ability,  experience,  and 
debating  powers  greatly  superior  to  its  opponents.  It 
was  calculated  by  the  whips  and  wire-pullers  that  after 
another  registration  Peel  would  have  a  clear  majority. 
These  hopes  were  nipped  in  the  bud  by  the  accession  of 


THE  GEEAT  CONSERVATIVE  FAETY.       21 

the  young  Queen  while  the  Whigs  were  still  in  office, 
which  gave  them  the  chance  of  appealing  to  the  country 
as  her  ministers,  an  advantage  which  gained  them  so  many 
seats  that  they  were  able  to  retain  their  hold  on  office 
through  another  Parliament. 

But  the  reaction,  temporarily  arrested,  soon  set  in 
again  more  strongly  and  steadily  than  ever.  By  their 
Irish  policy,  their  ecclesiastical  policy,  and  their  finan- 
cial policy,  the  Whigs  disgusted  and  alarmed  thou- 
sands of  independent  men,  and  alienated,  at  the  same 
time,  many  of  their  old  friends,  who  found  it  necessary 
to  become  Conservatives  to  ensure  being  ruled  by  men 
of  business.  But  it  will  be  seen,  as  Mr.  Disraeli  saw, 
that  the  tide  of  opinion  which  set  in  against  the 
Liberals  from  1837  to  1841  was  only  very  partially  and 
superficially  a  Conservative  or  Tory  movement.  The 
middle  classes  began  to  turn  to  Sir  Kobert  Peel  as 
the  safest  and  most  experienced  statesman  to  whom 
their  fortunes  could  be  entrusted.  But  they  went  no 
farther.  Of  Tory  principles  as  they  were  then  under- 
stood, the  Toryism  of  Eldon  and  Wetherell,  they  were 
certainly  not  enamoured,  and  they  kuew  of  no  other. 
If  a  peaceful,  economical  and  constitutional  Govern- 
ment, including  the  ablest  administrators  of  the  day, 
and  prepared  to  give  the  country  such  measures  as  the 
times  required,  chose  to  call  itself  Conservative,  then  the 
nation  was  Conservative,  but  not  in  any  other  sense. 
But  a  party  of  this  kind  could  never  restore  that 
"  faith "  which  the  Reform  Bill  had  destroyed,  and 
which,  even  if  devoted  to  an  obsolete  system,  is  still  the 
fountain  light  of  all  political  creeds.  This  truth  did 
not  dawn  on  Mr.  Disraeli  all  at  once  any  more  than 
it  did  on  Mr.  Gladstone.  Both  imagined  they  saw 
something  in  the  apparent  revival  of  Toryism  between 


22  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BFAC0N8FIELD. 

1835  and  1841  which  was  not  there.  Mr.  Gladstone 
says,  in  his  Cliajder  of  Auiohiographijy  that  no  sooner 
were  his  friends  in  office  than  he  found  there  was  not  a 
single  man  prepared  to  act  on  these  principles.  And 
Mr.  Disraeli,  who  made  a  similar  discovery  about  the 
same  time,  expressed  his  sentiments  in  Coningshy  and 
Sybil,  But  in  1837  all  this  was  to  come.  Mr.  Disraeli 
had  as  yet  unbounded  faith  in  Sir  Kobert  Peel,  and 
looked  to  him  to  play  the  part  which  he  afterwards 
assigned  to  Young  England. 

Full  of  these  ideas  he  passed  within  the  portals  of 
those  '*  proud  and  passionate  halls,"  of  which  he  was 
destined  one  day  to  be  the  ruler,  confident  in  his 
destinies,  and  little  dreaming,  perhaps,  of  the  trials  that 
awaited  him,  and  which  were  not  to  be  the  least  severe 
•when  he  had  apparently  distanced  all  competitors.  His 
maiden  speech  was  delivered  on  the  7th  of  December 
1837,  when  he  experienced  a  foretaste  of  the  malignity, 
the  injustice,  and  the  persistent  misrepresentation  which 
pursued  him  through  his  whole  career.  The  subject  of 
debate  was  a  motion  made  by  Mr.  Smith  O'Brien, 
relating  to  an  alleged  subscription  fund  in  Ireland  for 
promoting  petitions  against  the  return  of  members  who 
belonged  to  Mr.  O'ConnelFs  party.  Disraeli  followed 
O'Connell,  and  his  voice  was  immediately  drowned  in 
the  clamour  raised  by  a  host  of  members  below  the  bar, 
consisting  of  the  agitator's  **  tail,"  and  a  few  English 
Radicals  who  combined  with  them.  Of  the  speech  itself 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  it  was  in  his  early  style,  while 
his  rhetoric  was  still  green,  and  when  he  had  not  yet 
learned  the  due  proportion  in  which  epigram  should  be 
mixed  with  solid  argument.  But  it  does  not  appear  that 
his  reception  by  the  House  at  large  was  altogether 
unfavourable.     We  read  in  his  own  account  of  it  that 


THE  GUEAT  CONSERVATIVE  PARTY.      23 

Sir  Kobert  Peel  cheered  him  repeatedly;  that  Sir 
John  Campbell,  the  Attorney-General,  assured  him 
that  the  front  bench  had  been  very  anxious  to  listen 
to  him,  and  had  no  control  over  the  clique  below ; 
and  that  Sheil,  who  heard  the  speech,  said  to  some 
friends  at  the  Athenaium :  "  If  ever  the  spirit  of  ^ 
oratory  was  in  a  man,  it  is  in  that  man."  There  is 
no  difficulty  in  believing  that  competent  judges  saw 
the  promise  of  future  excellence  under  all  these 
disadvantageous  conditions,  and  notwithstanding  the 
eccentric  exterior  of  the  ambitious  neophyte.  Bulwer 
asked  Sheil  to  meet  him  at  dinner,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  evening  the  experienced  orator  gave  him  the 
following  good  advice  : — 

If  you  had  been  listened  to,  what  would  have  been  the  result  ?  You  /^ 
would  have  made  the  best  speech  that  you  ever  would  have  made.  It 
would  have  been  received  frigidly,  and  you  would  have  despaired  of 
yourself.  I  did.  As  it  is,  you  have  shown  to  the  house  that  you 
have  a  fine  organ,  that  you  have  an  unlimited  command  of  language, 
that  you  have  courage,  temper,  and  readiness.  Now  get  rid  of  your 
genius  for  a  session.  Speak  often,  for  you  must  not  show  yourself 
cowed,  but  speak  shortly.  Be  very  quiet,  try  to  be  dull,  only  argue, 
and  reason  imperfectly ;  for  if  you  reason  with  precision,  they  will 
think  you  are  trying  to  be  witty.  Astonish  them  by  speaking  on 
subjects  of  detail.  Quote  figures,  dates,  calculations,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  House  will  sigh  for  the  wit  and  eloquence  which  they  all 
know  are  in  you  ;  thoy  will  encourage  you  to  pour  them  forth,  and 
then  you  will  have  the  ear  of  the  House  and  be  a  favourite. 

But  we  have  still  among  us  a  living  witness  of  the 
scene,  whose  testimony  to  the  real  merits  of  the  speech 
must  be  held  to  be  conclusive.  **  My  lords,"  said 
Lord  Granville,  on  May  9ih,  1881,  '*I  myself,  assisted 
by  some  of  those  social  advantages  which  Mr.  Disraeli 
was  without,  came  into  the  House  six  months  before 
Mr.  Disraeli  took  his  seat  in  that  assembly.  I  had 
thus  the  opportunity  of  hearing   that  speech  famous  for 


If 


24  LIF:E  of  lord  BFAC0N8FIELD. 

its  failure,  and  I  am  convinced  that  if  that  speech  had 
been  made  in  a  House  of  Commons  which  knew  him 
better  it  would  have  been  received  with  cheers  and 
sympathetic,  not  derisive,  laughter."  Mr.  Disraeli 
never  spoke  again  without  being  listened  to  with 
attention.  Ten  days  after  his  first  appearance,  he 
presented  himself  to  the  House  again  on  Talfourd's 
Copyright  Bill,  detaining  his  audience  a  very  little 
while,  making  a  practical  suggestion  to  influence 
Talfourd,  and  winding  up  with  a  point  which  told 
very  well.  **  As  for  myself,  I  trust  that  -the  age  of 
literary  patronage  has  passed,  and  it  will  be  honour- 
able to  the  present  Government  if,  under  its  auspices, 
it  be  succeeded  by  that  of  legislative  protection." 

His  course  was  now  clear.  It  was  soon  understood 
that  whatever  the  general  character  of  his  speeches, 
they  were  pretty  sure  to  contain  something  that  was 
original,  and  probably  something  that  was  witty  ;  and 
though  more  than  this  is  necessary  to  make  a  man  a 
power  in  the  House  of  Commons,  it  is  enough,  at  all 
events  to  secure  him  a  fair  field,  and  prevent  him 
from  being  ''  howled  down." 

The  two  principal  events  affecting  Mr.  Bisraeli's  poli- 
tical career  during  the  existence  of  his  first  Parliament 
were  the  Chartist  insurrection  and  the  Bedchamber 
Plot,  such  being  the  name  given  to  a  so-called  Palace 
intrigue,  whereby  the  Whigs,  it  is  said,  endeavoured 
to  secure  their  own  return  to  power  alter  resigning  on 
the  Jamaica  Bill  in  1839.  Sir  Kobert  Peel,  on  being 
sent  for,  found  that  Her  Majesty  desired  to  retain 
about  her  person  the  ladies  of  the  Bedchamber.  It 
turned  out  that  there  were  only  two  whose  dismissal 
•Sir  Robert  thought  essential.  But  the  Queen  con- 
tinuing  firm,  he    declined    to    form    a    ministry,    and 


THE  GREAT  CONSERVATIVE  PARTY.      25 

the  Melbourne  Government  was  reinstated.  Opinion 
was  much  divided  at  the  time  on  the  conduct  of  the 
different  parlies  concerned.  Disraeli  thought  Sir 
Eobert  wrong.  He  thought  it  was  both  ungraceful 
and  impolitic  on  the  part  of  the  leader  of  the  Tories 
to  thwart  a  young  sovereign,  "and  that  sovereign  a 
woman,"  in  the  first  exercise  of  her  prerogative. 
With  his  head  full  of  a  monarchical  revival,  it  was 
natural  that  he  should  think  so;  as  natural,  per- 
haps, as  that  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who  remembered  the 
effects  of  female  influence  in  a  previous  reign,  should 
think  the  reverse.  However,  the  Whigs  took  little 
by  the  manoeuvre.  They  only  gained  time  to  re- 
double their  own  unpopularity,  so  that  if  the  advice 
which  Lord  Melbourne  gave  the  Queen  was  really 
unconstitutional,  he  paid  the  penalty. 

It  would  have  been  wiser,  however,  in  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  to  have  waived  the  point  and  trusted  to  the 
Queen's  good  sense  to  save  him  from  the  difficulties 
which  he  apprehended ;  and  he  too,  perhaps,  would 
have  had  his  reward,  for  had  he  taken  office  in  1839, 
instead  of  1841,  he  would  not  have  come  into  power 
so  irrevocably  committed  to  the  Corn  Laws,  and  his 
repeal  of  them  would  have  looked  less  like  the  betrayal 
of  confidence  than  it  did  under  the  actual  circum- 
stances. It  is  rather  curious  that  in  Disraeli^s  letters 
to  his  sister  we  find  no  reference  to  this  affair,  and 
only  a  very  brief  mention  of  the  Chartist  disturb- 
ances, in  which  he  took  so  lively  an  interest,  and  of 
which  he  has  left  us  so  animated  an  account  in  StjhiL 

It  was  on  the  12th  of  July  1839  that  he  roade  his 
speech  on  the  Chartist  Petition,  presented  to  Parlia- 
ment by  Mr.  Attwood,  member  for  Birmingham,  and 
demanding  what  were  called  the  five  points — manhood 


26  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAGONSFIELB, 

suffrage,  vote  by  ballot,  electoral  districts,  annual 
parliaments,  and  payment  of  members.  He  writes 
about  this  speech  to  his  sister  in  his  usual  style:  '*  I 
made  a  capital  speech  last  night,"  he  says.  But  at 
all  events  it  was  a  very  remarkable  speech,  and  the 
one  which,  it  is  said,  first  gained  him  the  ear  of  the 
House.  Six  years  afterwards  he  described  it  again  in 
the  novel  we  have  just  named.  Sybil,  the  heroine,  the 
beautiful,  refined,  and  highly-educated  daugluer  of  a 
Chartist  leader,  and  enthusiastically  devoted  to  the 
cause,  is  sitting  in  St.  James's  Park  on  a  fine  summer 
morning  reading  the  report  of  the  debate. 

Yes,  there  was  one  voice  that  had  sounded  in  that  proud  Parliament, 
that,  free  from  the  slang  of  faction,  had  dared  to  express  immortal 
truths  :  the  voice  of  a  noble  who,  without  being  a  demagogue,  had 
upheld  the  popular  cause ;  had  pronounced  his  conviction  that  the 
rights  of  labour  were  as  sacred  as  those  of  property ;  that  if  a  diffe- 
rence were  to  be  established,  the  interests  of  the  living  wealth  ought 
to  be  preferred ;  who  had  declared  that  the  social  haj^piness  of  the 
milHons  should  be  the  first  object  of  a  statesman,  and  that,  if  this 
were  not  achieved,  thrones  and  dominions,  the  pomp  and  power 
of  courts  and  empires  were  alike  worthless. 

The  speech  itself  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  a  passage 
in  which  Mr.  Disraeli  expresses  his  distrust  of  the 
middle  classes  as  a  foundation  for  any  system  of  govern- 
ment. But  his  sympathy  with  the  Chartists  of  that 
day  was  quite  sincere,  though  he  did  not  agree  with  them 
practically;  and  his  kindly  reception  of  Cooper  the 
Chartist,  five  years  after  the  speech  was  delivered,  was 
'referred  to  in  terms  of  high  approval  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
in  his  great  funeral  oration  over  his  rival's  tomb. 

Throughout  the  correspondence  for  the  years 
1838-39,  the  name  of  Mrs.  Wyndham  Lewis  occurs 
frequently.  Sometimes  Disraeli  accompanies  her  to  the 
theatre.     When   he  got  his  Coronation  medal  he  pre- 


THE  GREAT  CONSERVATIVE  PARTY,      Qj 

sented  it  to  **Mrs.  W.  L./'  and  after  her  husband's 
death,  which  took  place  on  the   14th  of  March  1838, 
nobody   was  surprised   at  hearing  who   was  to  be  his 
successor.     They  were  married  in  London  on  the  28th 
of  August  1839,  and  went  to  Tunbridge  Wells  for  the 
first   days    of  their  honeymoon.     They    stayed    at  the 
"  Kentish,"   then  one  of  the  principal    hotels  in    that 
chbrming   little   watering    place,   and   visited    Bayham 
Abbey  and   Penshurst,  where  Disraeli  found,  of  course, 
that  his  friend  De  Lisle  was  out  shooting.      They  only 
stayed  about  ten  days  in  England,  and  then  set  out  for 
Germany,  arriving  at  Baden-Baden  on  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember.    "  The  most  picturesque,  agreeable,  lounging 
sort  of  place  you   can  imagine,"  he  writes;  **a  bright 
little   river   winding   about   green    hills,   with  a   white 
sparkling  town  of  some  dozen  palaces,  called  hotels,  and 
some  lodging-houses   like    the  side  scenes  of  a  melo- 
drama,  and   an    old    ruined    castle   or   two  on   woody 
heights."     Mrs.  Disraeli,  however,  pronounced  it  *'  not 
much  better  than  Cheltenham,"  so  they  left  it  in  about 
a  week,    and  went  on   to    Munich.     At   Munich   they 
passed  about  three  weeks,  and  early  in  November  they 
were  at  Paris.     The  end   of  the  month  found  them  in 
England  and  settled  at  Grosveoor  Gate.    Lord  Malmes- 
bury  met  them   at  dinner  in   the  following  season,  and 
describes  Mrs.  Disraeli  as  a  very  remarkable  woman 
both  in  mind  and  manner. 

Disraeli's  marriage  made  a  great  change  in  his  cir- 
cumstances. He  was  now  for  the  first  time  beyond  the 
pressure  of  pecuniary  cares,  and  rich  enough  to  take 
upon  himself  the  style  and  fashion  of  an  English 
country  gentleman.  He  did  not,  however,  become  the 
owner  of  Hughenden  immediately  ;  and  as  late  as  Sep- 
tember 1843  made  Bradcuham  his  country  home.     It 


28  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELD. 

was  here,  *'  in  his  old  writing- room,"  next  to  his 
sister's  room,  that,  in  the  autumn  of  1843,  he  finished 
Coningshj,  which  he  had  sketched  out  at  Deepdene 
early  in  September.  He  was  master  of  Hughenden 
before  1847,  and  that  is  all  that  1  can  ascertain. 

Parliament  met  in  the  month  of  January,,  and  the 
Whigs  struggled  desperately  on  through  this  session 
and  the  next.  But  at  this  time,  in  the  days  of  the  old 
ten-pound  franchise,  and  before  the  growth  of  that  sin- 
gular product  of  our  own  day,  the  High  Church 
Radical,  the  three  great  interests  in  the  country,  the 
moneyed  interest,  the  agricultural  interest,  and  the  Church 
interest,  could,  when  united,  carry  all  before  them,  and 
Sir  Robert  Peel  had  united  them.  This  was  **  the  great 
Conservative  Party."  The  motley  combination  of  Re- 
pealers, Free  Traders,  and  Dissenters,  wliich  was  all  the 
Whigs  had  to  oppose  to  him,  was  no  match  for  this 
solid  phalanx.  They  were  gradually  deserted  by  their 
own  followers  in  the  Plouse  of  Commons,  and,  finally 
staking  their  all  on  the  popularity  of  a  fixed  duty  on 
corn,  they  were  defeated,  in  the  session  of  1841,  by  a 
mnjority  of  thirty-six,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who  would 
*' rather  be  the  leader  of  the  country  gentlemen  of  Eng- 
land than  possess  the  confidence  of  sovereigns,'-*  and 
who  opposed  the  fixed  duty  avowedly  on  the  ground 
that  it  must  lead  in  the  end  to  Free  Trtide^  gave  notice 
shortly  afterwards  of  his  intention  to  move  a  vote  of 
want  of  confidence.  This  was  carried  against  Govern- 
ment by  a  majority  of  one,  and  on  the  23rd  of  June 
Parliament  was  dissolved. 

The  Conservative  cause  was  everywhere  triumphant. 
Mr.  Disraeli  w^as  returned  for  Shrewsbury.  And  Sir 
Robert  Peel  became  Prime  Minister  with  a  majority  of 
seventy  at  his  back.     Guizot  prophesied  that  he  would 


THE  GREAT  CONSERVATIVE  PARTY.      29 

be  the  Walpole  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  had  he 
adhered  to  the  principles  which  brouglit  him  into 
power,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  could  have  turned  him 
out  of  it.  He  might  have  stayed  in  for  two  Parliaments 
at  all  events,  and  probably  for  a  third  also.  But  scarcely 
was  he  seated  in  power,  ere  doubts  began  to  creep  into 
his  mind  concerning  the  truth  of  the  commercial  theo- 
ries which,  for  six  years,  he  had  been  so  diligently  in- 
culcating on  his  followers.  What  was  he  to  do  ?  The 
rank  and  file  of  the  party  began  to  complain  of  his  cold- 
ness, his  reserve,  his  pride,  his  arrogance,  his  impe- 
riousness.  This  is  just  the  behaviour  we  should  expect 
from  one  who,  being  at  the  head  of  a  great  party, 
and  trusted  by  them  implicitly  as  the  champion  of  a 
political  creed,  becomes  suddenly  infected  with  scepti- 
cism, and  knows  not  where  to  look  for  sympathy.  We 
may  pity  a  man  placed  in  such  a  position  as  this,  but 
we  cannot  acquit  him  of  a  serious  error  if  he  takes 
advantage  of  the  power  he  has  gained  by  advocating 
one  set  of  principles  to  eff'ect  the  triumph  of  another; 
and,  without  taking  his  followers  into  his  confidence  or 
making  a  single  effort  to  convert  them,  suddenly,  and 
almost  contemptuously,  abandons  the  cause  which  they 
had  entrusted  to  him,  espouses  the  system  which  he  had 
taught  them  to  abhor,  and  requires  of  them  at  a 
moment's  notice,  and  on  his  own  sic  volo  sic  juheoy  to 
adopt  it  entirely,  on  pain  of  destroying  the  position 
which  it  had  been  the  work  of  their  leader  to  build  up. 
It  was  not,  however,  till  Peel  had  been  in  office  two 
years  that  any  signs  of  insubordination  began  to  show 
themselves.  Disraeli  defended  his  earlier  financial  mea- 
sures in  speeches  of  marked  ability,  both  in  the  House 
of  Commons  and  in  an  address  to  his  constituents  at 
Shrewsbury.     On  the  25Lh  of  April  1843,  when   Mr. 


30  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEACONSFIELD. 

Ricardo,  the  Member  for  Stoke,  moved  "That  the 
remission  of  duties  should  not  be  postponed  to  the 
execution  of  commercial  treaties,"  Mr.  Disraeli  delivered 
a  speech  which,  "  to  this  day,"  says  Mr.  Morley,*  "  is 
remarkable  for  its  large  and  comprehensive  survey  of 
the  whole  field  of  our  commerce,  and  for  its  discern- 
ment of  the  channels  in  which  it  would  expand."  But 
it  is  remarkable  for  more  than  this.  For  it  distinctly 
predicts  the  position  in  which  England  would  find  her- 
self if,  while  she  adopted  Free  Trade,  the  rest  of  Europe 
clung  to  Protection;  and  he  endeavoured  to  impress 
upon  his  audience  the  very  important  truth  that  the 
great  Powers  of  the  Continent  place  political  considera- 
tions first  and  political  economy  second. 

This  was  his  own  practice  as  well.  If  he  was  a  Pro- 
tectionist, he  was  a  Protectionist  on  political  not  upon 
commercial  principles,  and  in  his  speech  at  Shrewsbury, 
May  9th,  1843,  he  expounded  his  ideas  at  some  length. 
After  showing  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  only  treading  in 
the  footsteps  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Liverpool,  he 
continued  as  follows  : — 

I  never  will  commit  myself  upon  this  great  question  to  petty  econo- 
mical details.  I  will  not  pledge  myself  to  miserable  questions  of 
6d.  in  7s.  6d.  or  8s.  of  duties  about  corn.  I  do  not  care  whether  your 
corn  sells  for  this  sum  or  that,  or  whether  it  is  under  a  sliding 
scale  or  a  fixed  duty ;  but  what  I  want  and  what  I  wish  to 
secure,  and  what,  as  far  as  my  energies  go,  I  will  secure,  is  the  pre- 
ponderance of  the  landed  interest.  Gentlemen,  when  I  talk  of 
the  preponderance  of  the  landed  interest,  do  not  for  a  moment  suppose 
that  I  mean  merely  the  preponderance  of  "  squires  of  high  degree," 
that,  in  fact,  I  am  thinking  only  of  justices  of  the  peace.  My  thought 
wanders  farther  than  a  lordly  tower  or  a  manorial  hall.  I  am  look- 
ing, in  using  that  very  phrase,  to  what  I  consider  the  vast 
majority  of  the  English  nation.  I  do  not  undervalue  the  mere  supe- 
riority  of  the  landed  classes ;   on  the   contrary,  I  think  it   a   most 

*  Life  of  Cohden,  vol.  ii.  p  336. 


THE  GREAT  CONSERVATIVE  PARTY.      31 

necessary  element  of  political  power,  and  national  civilisation; 
but  I  am  looking  to  the  population  of  our  innumerable  villages,  to 
the  crowds  in  our  rural  towns  ;  aye,  and  I  mean  even  something  more 
than  that  by  the  landed  interest.  I  mean  that  estate  of  the  poor 
which,  in  my  opinion,  has  been  already  tampered  with,  dangerously 
tampered  with ;  which  I  have  also  said,  let  me  remind  you,  in  other 
places  besides  Shrewsbury.  I  mean  by  the  estate  of  the  poor,  the 
great  estate  of  the  Church,  which  has,  before  this  time,  secured  our 
liberty,  and  may,  for  aught  I  know,  still  secure  our  civilisation. 

Gentlemen,  we  hear  a  great  deal  in  the  present  day  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  the  feudal  system.  I  have  heard  from  the  lips  of  Mr.  Cobden — 
no,  I  have  not  heard  him  say  it,  as  I  was  not  present  to  hear  the  cele- 
brated speech  he  made  in  Drury  Lane  Theatre — but  we  have  all 
heard  how  Mr.  Cobden,  who  is  a  very  eminent  person,  has  said,  in  a 
very  memorable  speech,  that  England  was  the  victim  of  the  feudal 
system,  and  we  have  all  heard  how  he  has  spoken  of  the  bar- 
barism of  the  feudal  system  and  of  the  barbarous  relics  of  the 
feudal  system.  Now,  if  we  have  any  relics  of  the  feudal  system, 
I  regret  that  not  more  of  it  is  remaining.  Think  one  moment 
— and  it  is  well  you  should  be  reminded  of  what  this  is,  because 
there  is  no  phrase  more  glibly  used  in  the  present  day  than 
the  barbarism  of  the  feudal  system.  Now,  what  is  the  funda- 
mental pi'inciple  of  the  feudal  system,  gentlemen  ?  It  is  that  the 
tenure  of  all  pi'operty  shall  be  the  performance  of  its  duties.  Why, 
when  the  Conqueror  carved  out  parts  of  the  land  and  introduced  the 
feudal  system,  he  said  to  the  recipient,  "  You  shall  have  that  estate, 
but  you  shall  do  something  for  it ;  you  shall  feed  the  poor ;  you  shall 
endow  the  Church  ;  you  shall  defend  the  land  in  case  of  war ;  and  you 
shall  execute  justice  and  maintain  truth  to  the  poor  for  nothing."  It  is 
all  very  well  to  talk  of  the  barbarities  of  the  feudal  system,  and  to 
tell  us  that  in  those  days  when  it  flourished  a  great  vai'iety  of  gross 
and  grotesque  circumstances  and  great  miseries  occurred  ;  but  these 
were  not  the  result  of  the  fexidal  system  ;  they  were  the  result  of  the 
barbarism  of  the  age.  They  existed  not  from  the  feudal  system,  but 
in  spite  of  the  feudal  system.  The  principle  of  the  feudal  system,  the 
principle  which  was  practically  operated  upon,  was  the  noblest  prin- 
ciple, the  grandest,  the  most  magnificent  and  benevolent  that  was  ever 
conceived  by  sage,  or  ever  practised  by  patriot.  Why,  when  we  hear 
a  political  economist,  or  an  Anti-Corn-Law  Leaguer,  or  some  conceited 
Liberal  reviewer,  come  forward  and  toll  us  a  grand  discovery  of 
modern  science,  twittmg  and  taunting,  perhaps,  some  unhappy  squire 
who  cannot  respond  to  the  alleged  discovei'y — when  I  hear  them  say, 
as  the  great  discovery  of  modern  science,  that  "  Property  has  its 


32  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELB. 

duties  as  well  as  its  rights,"  my  answer  is  that  that  is  bnt  a  feeble 
plagiarism  of  the  very  principle  of  that  feudal  system  which  you  are 
always  reviling.  Let  me  next  tell  those  gentlemen  who  are  so  fond  of 
telling  us  that  property  has  its  duties  as  well  as  its  rights,  that 
labour  also  has  its  rights  as  well  as  its  duties.  And  when  I  see  masses 
of  property  raised  in  this  country  which  do  not  recognise  that  prin- 
ciple ;  when  I  find  men  making  fortunes  by  a  method  Avhich  permits 
them  (very  often  in  a  very  few  years)  to  purchase  the  lands  of  the 
old  territorial  aristocracy  of  the  country,  I  cannot  help  remembering 
that  those  millions  are  accumulated  by  a  mode  which  does  not  recog- 
nise it  as  a  duty  "  to  endow  the  Church,  to  feed  the  poor,  to  guard 
the  land,  and  to  execute  justice  for  nothing."  And  I  cannot  help  ask- 
ing myself,  when  I  hear  of  all  this  misery,  and  of  all  this  suffering  ; 
when  I  know  that  evidence  exists  in  our  Parliament  of  a  state  of 
demoralisation  in  the  once  happy  population  of  this  land,  which  is  not 
equalled  in  the  most  barbarous  countries,  which  we  suppose  the  more 
rude  and  uncivilised  in  Asia  are — I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  this  has 
arisen  because  property  has  been  permitted  to  be  created  and  held 
without  the  performance  of  its  duties. 

If  we  recur  to  the  continental  system  of  parcelling  out  landed 
estates,  I  want  to  know  how  long  you  can  maintain  the  political 
system  of  the  country  ?  That  estate  of  the  Church  which  I  men- 
tioned ;  that  estate  of  the  poor  to  which  I  referred  ;  that  great  fabric 
of  judicial  rights  to  which  I  made  allusion ;  those  traditionary  man- 
ners and  associations  which  spring  out  of  the  land,  which  form  the 
national  character,  which  form  part  of  the  possession  of  the  poor  not 
to  be  despised,  and  which  is  one  of  the  most  important  elements  of 
political  power — they  will  tell  you  "  Let  it  go."  My  answer  to  that 
is,  "  If  it  goes,  it  is  revolution,  a  great,  a  destructive  revohition.  For 
these  reasons,  gentlemen,  I  believe,  in  that  i-espect  faithfully  repre- 
senting your  sentiments,  that  I  have  always  upheld  that  law  which  I 
think  will  uphold  and  maintain  the  preponderance  of  the  agricultural 
interests  of  the  country.  I  do  not  wish  to  conceal  the  ground  upon 
which  I  wish  to  uphold  it.  I  never  attempted  to  uphold  it  by  talking 
of  the  peculiar  burthen  which,  however,  I  believe,  may  be  legiti- 
mately proved,  or  indulging  in  many  of  those  arguments  in  favour 
of  the  Corn  Laws  which  may  or  may  not  be  sound,  but  which  are 
always  brought  forward  with  a  sort  of  hesitating  consciousness  which 
may  be  assumed  to  be  connected  with  futility.  I  take  the  only 
broad,  and  only  safe  line,  namely,  that  what  we  ought  to  uphold  is 
that  the  preponderance  of  the  landed  interest  has  made  England ; 
that  it  is  an  immense  element  of  political  power  and  stability  ;  that 
■we  should  never  have  been  able  to  undertake  the  great  war  in  which 


THE  GREAT  CONSERVATIVE  PARTY.       33 

we  embarked  in  the  memory  of  many  present ;  that  we  could  never 
have  been  able  to  conquer  the  greatest  military  genius  the  world  ever 
saw  with  the  greatest  means  at  his  disposal,  and  to  hurl  him  from  the 
throne,  if  we  had  not  had  a  territorial  aristocracy  to  give  stability  to 
our  constitution. 

This  whole  argument  for  Protection,  which  takes  it 
out  of  the  region  of  arithmetic  and  transfers  it  to  the 
higher  ground  of  political  philosophy,  was  alien  from 
the  mind  of  Peel,  who  was  by  nature  a  political  econo- 
mist, and  whose  creed,  as  has  well  been  said,  was  the 
conservatism  of  the  bank  and  the  counting-house,  not 
of  the  cloister  and  the  manor-house;  and  if  we  would 
have  the  key  to  Young  England  in  a  few  words,  it  was  a 
revolt  against  bourgeois  politics,  against  the  hard  and 
uninteresting  aspect  which  Conservatism  in  the  hands 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  beginning  to  assume.  There 
was  food  for  the  imagination  both  in  Toryism  and 
Radicalism  ;  but  not  in  that  sober,  prudent,  middle-class 
compromise,  which  was  rightly  described  by  Mr.  Tad- 
pole, in  Coningshy,  as  composed  of  Tory  men  and  Whig 
measures. 


8 


34        lif:e  of  lobd  beagonsfielb. 


CHAPTER    III. 

YOUNG   ENGLAND. 

1843. 

Young  England  Toryism  and  Conservatism — Disraeli's  position  — 
Breach  with  Peel — Coningshy — The  Young  England  creed — 
Didactic  elements  in  Coningshy — Its  portraits  and  types — Tour  in 
the  manufacturing  districts — Sybil — Theme  of  the  novel — Dis- 
raeli's political  ideal — Young  England  and  the  Anglican  revival. 

The  whole  of  the  speech  from  which  the  extracts  in 
the  above  chapter  have  been  taken,  and  which  was 
delivered  by  Mr.  Disraeli  at  Shrewsbury  on  the 
9th  of  May  1843,  three  months  before  the  first  breach 
with  Sir  Robert  Peel,  is  a  foreshadowing  of  the  position 
which  Young  England  was  presently  to  assume,  and  of 
the  forthcoming  indictment  against  the  great  Conserva- 
tive party,  which  made  the  hair  of  Tadpole  and  Taper 
stand  on  end.  That  party  had  not  been  true  to  the  prin- 
ciples therein  sketched  out.  Its  support  of  the  Poor  Law, 
and  its  issue  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  were 
blows  struck  at  the  territorial  position  of  the  Church, 
and  the  authority  of  the  landed  gentry,  which  were, 
in   Mr.  Disraeli's   eyes,    among   the   most   sacred    de- 


TOUNG  ENGLAND,  35 

posits  of  Toryism.  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  willing  to 
establish  the  supremacy  of  the  House  of  Commons 
over  the  two  other  estates  of  the  realm,  and  the  Crown 
as  well.  Conservatism,  after  all,  was  only  Whiggism 
under  another  name.  Why  Mr.  Disraeli  did  not 
discover  this  before  is  one  of  the  innumerable  ques- 
tions in  the  history  of  his  political  opinions  to  which 
no  satisfactory  answer  will  ever  probably  be  returned. 
In  1835,  when  he  looked  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  as 
the  saviour  of  the  State,  the  Tamworth  Manifesto 
and  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  the  objects  of  his 
bitterest  scorn  and  keenest  invective  in  1843,  had  both 
been  issued.  Nor  could  it  have  been  only  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  change  of  opinion  on  Protection  which  made  the 
difference  between  Young  England  Toryism  and  Conser- 
vatism, for,  in  the  ^^t  place,  Young  England  was  born 
before  Peel's  change  of  front  became  apparent,  while, 
what  is  much  more  important,  not  only  had  the  political 
infidelity  which  it  was  the  object  of  Young  England 
to  expose  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  such  questions 
as  the  Corn  Laws,  but  the  great  statesmen  to  whom 
the  new  party  looked  for  inspiration — Bolingbroke, 
Shelburne,  and  Pitt — had  themselves  been  free-traders. 
Perhaps  he  waited  to  see  what  a  Conservative  Govern- 
ment would  bring  forth  before  declaring  himself  more 
openly.  Perhaps  he  felt  some  natural  reluctance  to 
break  with  the  only  party  to  which  he  could  look  for 
political  advancement  till  he  felt  more  sure  of  the 
ground  under  his  own  feet,  and  of  his  own  ability  to 
create  a  party  for  himself.  At  one  time  it  was  un- 
blushingly  asserted,  and  therefore  not  unfrequeutly 
believed,  that  he  had  applied  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  for 
some  appointment  in  the  Government,  and  that  the 
Prime  Minister's  refusal  was  the  cause  of  his  declaration 

3  * 


36  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BFACONSFIELD. 

of  hostilities.  This  cnlumny,  however,  has  been  ex- 
ploded long  ago,  and  we  can  only  explain  his  attitude 
between  1835  and  1843  by  falling  back  on  the  simple 
expedient  of  believing  that  he  spoke  the  truth ;  that  he 
really  meant  what  he  said  in  his  letter  to  the  Times,"^^ 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  and  in  another,  which 
will  be  found  below;  and  that,  the  Tamworth  Manifesto 
notwithstanding,  it  was  the  pristine  Toryism  of  the 
time  of  Anne  and  George  the  First  that  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  emerging  from  the  darkness  of  1832,  was  expected 
to  restore.  That  he  continued  in  this  faith  for  the 
space  of  eight  years  is  not,  of  course,  to  be  believed. 
Scepticism  must  have  been  germinating  in  his  mind 
for  some  years  before  it  broke  out  into  open  mutiny. 
But  at  what  moment  his  disbelief  in  Peelite  Conserva- 
tism became  absolute  and  final  it  is,  of  course,  impos- 
sible to  say. 

It  was  in  August  1843  that  the  storm  burst.  On 
the  9Lh  of  that  month  Sir  Eobert  Peel's  Irish  Arms  Bill 
was  read  a  third  time,  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  Lord  J. 
Manners  and  others  commented  on  it  with  some 
severity.  In  this  they  were  severely  taken  to  task  by 
the  Treasury  Bench,  and  warmly  defended  by  the 
Mor/iing  Chronicle  and  the  Times,  This  was  the  first 
open  breach,  and  it  was  never  healed,  Apropos  of  this 
alTair  Mr.  Disraeli,  writing  to  the  Times,  on  the  11th  of 
August  1843,  expresses  himself  to  the  following 
effect : — 

I  voted  for  "  the  industrial  measures  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  last  year, 
and  defended  them  during  the  present,  because  I  believed,  and  still 
believe,  that  they  were  founded  on  sound  principles  of  commercial 
policy;  principles  which  were  advocated  by  that  great  Tory  states- 
man, Lord  Bolingbroke,  in  1713 ;  principles  which,  in  abeyance  during 

*  December  31,  1835. 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  87 

the  "Whig  Government  of  seventy  years,  were  revived  by  that  great 
Tory  statesman  Mr.  Pitt ;  and,  though  their  progress  was  disturbed 
by  war  and  revolution,  which  wei-e  faithful  to  the  traditional  policy  of 
the  Tory  Party,  sanctioned  and  developed,  on  the  return  of  peace  and 
order,  by  Lord  Liverpool.  It  is  not  merely  with  reference  to  commer- 
cial policy  that  I  believe  that  a  recurrence  to  old  Tory  principles 
would  be  of  great  advantage  to  this  country.  It  is  a  specific,  in  my 
opinion,  and  the  onlj'-  one,  for  many  of  those  disquietudes  which  now 
perplex  our  society.  I  see  no  other  remedy  for  that  war  of  classes 
and  creeds  which  now  agitates  and  menaces  us  but  in  an  earnest 
return  to  a  system  which  may  be  described  generally  as  one  of 
loyalty  and  reverence,  of  popular  rights  and  social  sympathies. 

The  young  men  round  about  him  who  shared  in  those 
ideas  were  Lord  John  Manners,  the  Htn.  Gctrjfj  Smythe, 
Mr.  Bailie  Cochrane,  and  some  others ;  and  out  of 
Parliament  they  seem  to  have  found  a  ready  sympathiser 
in  Mr.  Henry  Hope,  of  Deepdene,  where  Disraeli  now 
spent  a  good  deal  of  his  time.  Here  he  and  his  wife 
spent  the  Christmas  of  1840,  with  many  '^  merry 
gambols,  charades,  and  ghosts";  such  a  Christmas, 
perhaps,  as  he  afterwards  describes  at  Eustace  Lyle's, 
when  Buckhurst  was  Lord  of  Misrule.  And  it  was 
amid  these  glades  and  alleys  and  in  close  communion 
with  these  gifted  friends  that  those  ideas  were  ripened, 
which  were  now  to  find  expression  in  the  most  remark- 
able political  fictions  which  our  literature  has  produced. 
He  writes  to  his  sister  from  Deepdene,  in  September 
1843,  that  he  is  coming  to  Bradenham,  and  wants  a 
workroom.  If  it  does  not  inconvenience  anybody,  he 
would  like  to  have  his  old  writing-room  next  to  hers. 
It  may  easily  be  supposed  that  his  request  was  granted, 
nnd  here,  amid  the  beautiful  beech-woods  of  his  favourite 
Buckinghamshire,  he  composed  Coninr/sbi/. 

The  main  object  of  Coningshy  was  to  protest 
against  the  elimination  of  the  royal  prerogative  from 
our  Constitutional  system,  which  had  been  effected  by 


38  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAGONSFIELD. 

the  revolution  of  1688,  and  to  recall  to  the  public  mind 
the  writings  of  Bolingbroke  as  representJDg  the  true 
principles  of  the  Monarchy.  The  downfall  of  the  oli- 
garchic system  in  1832  might,  he  thought,  pave  the  way 
for  the  revival  of  them.  But  Young  England  went  far- 
ther than  this.  It  embraced  that  emancipation  of  the 
Church  from  Parliamentary  dictation  in  matters  purely 
spiritual,  which  is  now  universally  desired  by  all  sober 
and  moderate  High  Churchmen :  that  maintenance  of 
ancient  local  jurisdictions,  and,  if  necessary,  the  crea- 
tion of  new  ones,  which  somehow  or  other  the  Liberal 
Party,  with  its  unrivalled  powers  of  mystification,  has 
contrived  to  represent  as  its  own  invention  ;  and  that 
improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  labouring  classes, 
botli  urban  and  rural,  of  which  Mr.  Disraeli  lived  to 
accomplish  much,  and  which  his  successor  is  now 
occupied  in  completing. 

But  it  was  not  so  much  the  particular  measures  to  be 
adopted  by  the  Tory  party  in  order  to  re-establish  its 
title  to  be  *'  the  popular  political  confederacy ''  of  this 
country,  as  the  spirit  in  which  the  work  was  to  be 
undertaken,  that  distinguished  the  teaching  of  Young 
England.  Coningsby  told  his  grandfather  that  he 
wished  to  see  the  restoration  of  political  faith,  which, 
to  Lord  Monmouth,  was  foolishness.  But  that  these 
words,  in  the  year  1844,  had  a  real  meaning  in  the 
eyes  of  sober  politicians  may  be  gathered  from  an 
article  in  the  EdinhurgU  Review,  vol.  Ixxx.,  in  which 
the  writer  says  of  the  old  regime  :  ^'  This  was  a  system 
on  which  one^s  moral  nature  could  repose,  a  solid 
temple  in  which  one  could  sincerely  worship."  With 
these  words  may  be  compared  Mr.  Gladstone's  : — 

One  of  my  objects  in  this  brief  retrospect  is  to  suggest  what 
party  prejudice   appears  to  forget,  that   the   true  character    of  our 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  89 

"working  Parliamentary  system  is  not  determined  exclusively  by 
the  condition  of  the  franchise  and  what  is  termed  the  disti'ibution 
of  seats.  Another  is  to  make  an  apology  for  those  who  felt  that, 
in  surrendering  the  former  system  as  a  whole,  to  substitute 
for  it  the  scheme  of  1832,  they  were  committing  themselves  to  a 
series  of  changes,  and  not  to  one  alone.  The  convictions  of  men  like 
Mr.  Burke,  Lord  Grenville,  Mr.  Canning,  Mr.  Hallam,  in  its  favour 
represent  something  much  higher,  much  more  historical,  than  has 
since  been,  or  could  be,  arrayed  in  defence  of  schemes  essentially 
intermediate  and  provisional,  against  further  modification.* 

Voila  tout.  Here  is  the  whole  foundation  and 
justification  of  that  '*  unparalled  betrayal  '^  in  which 
so  many  good  Conservatives  were  only  too  willing  to 
believe. 

It  is  true  that  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  was  no  admirer  of 
the  old  reyimey  which  fell  in  1832.  Both  the  Edin- 
burgh Keviewer  and  Mr.  Gladstone  would  have  admitted 
that  it  was  worn  out.  But  in  at  least  half  the  nation 
it  did  still  inspire  real  faith.  With  all  its  corruptions, 
with  all  its  exclusiveness  and  intolerance,  were  com- 
bined great  elements  of  strength,  and  ancient  and  glo- 
rious associations.  It  had  on  its  side  all  the  weight  of 
antiquity,  experience,  and  prescription.  Men  had  sat 
under  its  shadow  for  many  generations,  in  peace,  happi- 
ness, and  prosperity.  It  represented  distinct  principles 
which  were  not  mere  names;  a  monarchy  which,  how- 
ever limited,  still  possessed  real  power ;  an  aristocracy 
which  really  governed,  and  a  Church  which  was  still  the 
one  recognised  religion  of  the  nation,  and  possessed  a 
legal  claim  on  the  support  of  the  entire  people.  These 
were  principles,  erroneous  or  otherwise,  for  which  men 
felt  that  they  could  fight ;  and  the  hope  of  establishing 
something  in  its  place,  which  should  inspire  the  like 
degree  of  reverence,  and  rest  on  the  same  solid  founda- 

*  Gleanings,  vol.  i.  p.  137. 


40  LIFE  OF  LORD  JBEACONSFIELD. 

tions,  was  the  mainspring  of  the  Young  England  creed. 
Mr.  Gladstone  seeras  to  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
this  was  not  possible,  and  that  it  was  the  wisest  course 
to  throw  over  the  past  altogether,  and  go  forward  to 
meet  the  democracy  with  open  hands.  Mr.  Disraeli 
and  his  party  thought  otherwise.  They  hoped  that  it 
was  not  yet  too  late  to  obliterate  the  traces  of  mis- 
government  which  had  prejudiced  the  working  classes 
against  all  established  institutions,  and  to  rekindle 
that  attachment  to  the  Throne,  the  Church,  and  the 
landed  proprietors  of  the  kingdom,  "  the  natural  leaders 
of  the  people,"  which,  though  the  flame  burned  low, 
was  yet  far  from  being  extinct. 

In  Coiiingshy^  the  dramatic  and  didactic  elements 
are  not  so  closely  interwoven  with  each  other  as  not  to 
admit  of  being  separated,  and  it  is  perfectly  possible  to 
convey  to  the  reader  a  clear  idea  of  the  chief  positions 
which  are  maintained  in  it,  without  trenching  on  the 
province  of  the  literary  critic,  or  anticipating  the  re- 
marks we  have  to  make  on  the  plot,  the  characters,  and 
the  language. 

Harry  Coningsby  is  the  grandson  and  only  lineal  de- 
scendant of  the  Marquis  of  Monmouth,  a  great  noble  of 
colossal  fortune,  the  incarnation  of  common  sense,  cyni- 
cism, and  selfishness,  though  disposed  to  act  kindly  to 
those  who  do  not  thwart  him  ;  a  worshipper  of  Pitt,  but 
practically  a  supporter  of  the  later  school  of  Toryism, 
which  was  developed  by  the  French  Revolution.  We 
are  introduced  to  the  boy  and  the  man,  the  representa- 
tives of  the  old  generation  and  the  new,  in  May  1832, 
just  as  the  old  constitution  was  making  its  expiring 
effort.  And  on  the  character  of  the  Parliamentary  Ee- 
form  which  the  Whigs  succeeded  in  establishing,  Mr. 
Disraeli  has  the  following  very  interesting  remarks,  of 


TOUNG  ENGLAND.  41 

which  much  of  Mr.  Gladstone's,  essay  on  the  County 
Franchise  is  only  a  repetition  : — 

When  tlie  crowned  Northman  consulted  on  the  welfare  of  his  king- 
dom, he  assembled  the  estates  of  his  realm.  Now  an  estate  is  a  class 
*f  the  nation  invested  with  political  rights.  There  appeared  the 
jState  of  the  clergy,  of  the  barons,  of  other  classes.  In  the  Scandina- 
vian kingdoms  to  this  day,  the  estate  of  the  peasants  sends  its  repre- 
sentatives to  the  Diet  In  England,  under  the  Normans,  the  Church 
and  the  Baronage  were  convoked  together  with  the  estate  of  the  com- 
munity, a  tei-m  which  then  probably  described  the  inferior  holders  of 
land,  whose  tenure  was  not  immediate  of  the  Crown.  This  third 
estate  was  so  numerous  that  convenience  suggested  its  appearance  by 
representation ;  while  the  others,  more  limited,  appeared,  and  still 
appear,  personally.  The  third  estate  was  reconstructed  as  cii'cum- 
stances  developed  themselves.  It  was  a  reform  of  Parliament 
when  the  towns  were  summoned.  In  treating  the  House  of  the  third 
estate  as  the  House  of  the  People,  and  not  as  the  House  of  a  privi- 
leged class,  the  Ministry  and  Parliament  of  1831  virtually  conceded 
the  principle  of  universal  suffrage.  In  this  point  of  view,  the  ten- 
pound  franchise  was  an  arbitrary,  irrational,  and  impolitic  qualifica- 
tion. It  had,  indeed,  the  merit  of  simplicity,  and  so  had  the 
constitutions  of  Abbe  Sieyes.  But  its  immediate  and  inevitable 
result  was  Chartism.  But  if  the  Ministry  and  Parliament  of  ]  831 
had  announced  that  the  time  had  amved  when  the  thii'd  estate  should 
be  enlarged  and  reconstructed,  they  would  have  occupied  an  intelligible 
position;  and  if,  instead  of  simplicity  of  elements  in  its  reconstruction, 
they  had  sought,  on  the  contrary,  various,  and  varying,  materials, 
which  would  have  neutralized  the  painful  predominance  of  any  parti- 
cular interest  in  the  new  scheme,  and  prevented  those  banded 
jealousies  which  have  been  its  consequences,  the  nation  would  have 
found  itself  in  a  secure  condition.  Another  class,  not  less  numerous 
than  the  existing  one,  and  invested  with  privileges  not  less  important, 
would  have  been  added  to  the  public  estates  of  the  realm ;  and  the 
bewildering  phrase  "  the  People  "  would  have  remained  what  it  really 
is,  a  term  of  natural  philosophy  and  not  of  political  science. 

Passing  over  the  intermediate  years  which  are  taken 
up  with  the  hoyhood  of  Coningsby,  we  come  to  the 
political  crisis  of  1834-5,  which  introduces  us  to  a  fine 
dissertation  on  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  with  an  account  of  the  Liverpool  Administration 


42  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

in  its  earlier  and  later. stages.  In  the  former  it  was  the 
**  Cabinet  of  Mediocrities,"  which  has  now  become  a 
household  word.  In  the  latter,  **  it  had  come  to  be 
generally  esteemed  as  a  body  of  men  who  for  Parliamen- 
tary eloquence,  official  practice,  political  information, 
sagacity  in  council,  and  a  due  understanding  of  their 
epoch,  were  inferior  to  none  that  had  directed  the  policy 
of  the  Empire  since  the  Eevolution." 

At  this  point  Mr.  Disraeli  enters  at  once  upon  the  his- 
torical and  constitutional  theory  for  the  sake  of  which  the 
book  was  written,  and  of  which  the  following  passage 
presents,  perhaps,  an  adequate  epitome: — 

If  we  survey  the  tenor  of  the  policy  of  the  Liverpool  Cabinet 
during  the  latter  moiety  of  its  continuance,  we  shall  find  its  character- 
istic to  be  a  partial  recurrence  to  those  frank  principles  of  government 
■which  Mr.  Pitt  had  revived,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century, 
from  precedents  that  had  been  set  us  either  in  practice  or  in  dogma 
during  its  earlier  period,  by  statesmen  who  then  not  only  bore  the 
title  but  professed  the  opinions  of  Tories.  Exclusive  principles  in 
the  Constitution  and  restrictive  principles  in  commerce  have  grown 
up  together,  and  have  really  nothing  in  common  with  the  ancient 
character  of  our  political  settlement  or  the  manners  and  customs 
of  the  English  people.  Confidence  in  the  loyalty  of  the  nation, 
testified  by  munificent  grants  of  rights  and  franchises,  and  favour  to 
an  expansive  system  of  traffic,  were  distinctive  qualities  of  the 
English  sovereignty,  until  the  House  of  Commons  usurped  the  better 
portion  of  its  prerogatives.  A  Avidening  of  our  electoral  scheme, 
great  facilities  to  commerce,  and  the  rescue  of  our  Koman  Catholic 
fellow-subjects  from  the  Puritanic  yoke,  from  fetters  which  have  been 
fastened  on  them  by  English  parliaments,  in  spite  of  the  protests  and 
exertions  of  English  sovereigns  ;  these  were  the  three  great  elements 
and  fundamental  truths  of  the  real  Pitt  system — a  system  founded  on 
the  traditions  of  our  monai-chy,  and  caught  from  the  writings,  the 
speeches,  the  councils,  of  those  who,  for  the  sake  of  these  and  analo- 
gous benefits,  had  ever  been  anxious  that  the  Sovereign  of  England 
should  never  be  degraded  into  the  position  of  a  Venetian  Doge.  It  is 
in  the  plunder  of  the  Church  that  we  must  seek  for  the  prim.ary 
cause  of  our  political  exclusion  and  cur  commercial  restraint.  That 
unhallowed  booty  created  a  factitious  aristocracy,  ever  fearful  that 
they  might  be  called  upon  to  re-gorge  their  sacrilegious  spoil.     To 


YOUNG  ENGLAND,  48 

prevent  this,  they  took  refuge  in  political  religionism,  and  paltering 
■with  the  disturbed  consciences  or  the  pious  fantasies  of  a  portion  of 
the  people,  they  organized  themselves  into  religious  sects.  These 
became  the  unconscious  Praetorians  of  their  ill-gotten  domains.  At 
the  head  of  these  religionists,  they  have  continued  ever  since  to 
govern,  or  powerfully  to  influence,  this  country.  They  have  in  that 
time  pulled  down  thrones  and  churches,  changed  dynasties,  abrogated 
and  remodelled  parliaments ;  they  have  disfranchised  Scotland  and 
confiscated  Ireland.  One  may  admire  the  vigour  and  consistency  of 
the  Whig  Party,  and  recognise  in  their  career  that  unity  of  purpose 
that  can  only  spring  from  a  great  principle  ;  but  the  Whigs  introduced 
sectarian  religion,  sectarian  religion  led  to  political  exclusion,  and 
political  exclusion  was  soon  accompanied  by  commercial  restraint. 

But  even  the  Government,  which  was  led  in  one 
House  by  Mr.  Canning  and  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  sup- 
ported in  the  other  by  the  splendid  reputation,  ripe 
sagacity,  and  disinterested  patriotism  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  was  not  equal  to  the  occasion  : — 

This  Ministry,  strong  in  the  confidence  of  the  Sovereign,  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  people,  might,  by  the  courageous  promulgation  of  great 
historical  truths,  have  gradually  formed  a  public  opinion  that  would 
have  permitted  them  to  organize  the  Tory  Party  on  a  broad,  a  per- 
manent, and  national  basis.  The}''  might  have  nobly  effected  a 
complete  settlement  of  Ireland,  which  a  shattered  section  of  this  very 
Cabinet  was  forced  a  few  years  after  to  do  partially,  and  in  an  equivo- 
cating and  equivocal  manner.  They  might  have  concluded  a  satis- 
factory reconstruction  of  the  thii'd  estate,  without  producing  that 
convulsion  with  which,  from  its  violent  fabrication,  our  social  system 
still  vibrates.  Lastly,  they  might  have  adjusted  the  rights  and  pro- 
perties of  our  national  industries  in  a  manner  which  would  have 
prevented  that  fierce  and  fatal  rivalry  that  is  now  disturbing  every 
hearth  of  the  United  Kingdom.  We  may,  therefore,  visit  on  the 
laches  of  this  Ministry  the  introduction  of  that  new  principle  and 
power  into  our  constitution  which  ultimately  may  absorb  all — agitation. 
This  Cabinet,  then,  with  so  much  brilliancy  on  its  surface,  is  the  real 
parent  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Association,  the  political  unions,  and 
the  Anti-Corn  Law  League. 

Next  comes  the  Tamworth  Manifesto,  the  account  of 
which  is  made  the  vehicle  for  a  description  of  Conserva- 
tism  which,  as  has  been  already  pointed  out,   contrasts 


U  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEACON SFIFLB, 

strangely  with  his  opinion  of  it  in  1835,  just  after  that 
document  had  been  published. 

Conservatism  assumes  in  theory  that  everything  estabhshed  should 
be  maintained  ;  but  adopts  in  practice  that  everything  that  is  esta- 
blished is  indefensible.  To  reconcile  this  theory  and  this  practice, 
they  produce  what  they  call  "  the  best  bargain  "  ;  some  arrangement 
■which  has  no  principle  and  no  purpose,  except  to  obtain  a  temporary 
lull  of  agitation,  until  the  mind  of  the  Conservatives,  without  a  guide 
and  without  an  aim,  distracted,  tempted,  and  bewildered,  is  prepared 
for  another  arrangement,  equally  statesman-like  with  the  preceding 
one.  Conservatism  was  an  attempt  to  carry  on  affairs  by  substituting 
the  fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  office  for  the  performance  of  the  func- 
tions of  government ;  and  to  maintain  this  negative  system  by  the 
mere  influence  of  property,  reputable  private  conduct,  and  what  are 
called  good  connections.  Conservatism  discards  Prescription,  shrinks 
from  Principle,  disavows  Progress  ;  having  rejected  iill  respect  for 
Antiquity,  it  offers  no  redress  for  the  Present,  and  makes  no  prepara- 
tion for  the  Future. 

Two  years  afterwards  Coningsby  leaves  school,  and 
during  an  excursion  in  the  long  vocation  through  the 
Midland  counties,  falls  in  with  Sidonia.  He  meets  him 
at  an  inn  in  a  forest,  where  both  take  refuge  from  a 
thunderstorm — all  the  elements  of  romance  combining 
to  lend  an  interest  to  the  interview — and  that  day  is  a 
turning  point  in  Coningsby's  career.  The  stranger — a 
Jew  of  the  purest  race,  and  a  complete  citizen  of  the 
world — knows  everything,  has  been  everywhere,  and 
has  se&n  everybody ;  a  colossal  capitalist,  and  the 
resource  of  half  the  statesmen  in  Europe  in  their  pecu- 
niary difficulties,  he  is  acquainted  witli  the  inner  life  of 
all  the  Continental  Governments,  looks  on  all  institu- 
tions with  a  calm,  unprejudiced  eye,  and  notes  their 
merits  and  defects  in  the  tone  of  an  unconcerned  spec- 
tator. The  first  thing  which  Coningsby  learns  from  him 
is  the  "influence  of  the  individual,"  and  then  that 
**  the   history   of   Heroes   is    the   history    of    Youth.*' 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  45 

They  meet  again  soon  afterwards  at  Coningsby  Castle, 
the  seat  of  Lord  Monmouth  in  the  North,  where 
Sidonia  gives  his  pupil  some  further  lessons  in  history, 
politics,  and  ethnology,  and  teaches  him  that  theory 
of  the  Jewish  race,  which  took  the  world  as  much  by 
surprise  as  the  theory  of  the  British  Constitution. 

Coningsby  goes  up  to  Cambridge  bent  upon  "con- 
quering knowledge,'^  and  with  the  foundation  to  build 
upon  with  which  Sidonia  had  supplied  him,  he  was 
soon  equal  to  the  task  of  opening  the  minds  of  his 
companions.  The  following  is  his  first  letter  to 
Buckhurst,  Lord  Vere,  and  Lord  Henry  Sydney  : — 


I  repeat  it  [said  Coningsby],  the  great  object  of  the  Whig  leaders 
in  England,  from  the  first  movement  tinder  Hampden  to  the  last  more 
successful  one  in  1688,  was  to  establish  in  England  a  high  aristo- 
cratic repubUc,  on  the  model  of  the  Venetian,  then  the  study  and 
admiration  of  all  speculative  politicians.  Read  Harrington,  turn  over 
Algernon  Sydney,  and  you  will  see  how  the  minds  of  the  English 
leaders  in  the  seventeenth  century  were  saturated  with  the  Venetian 
type.  And  they  at  length  succeeded  ;  William  IH.  found  them  out. 
He  told  the  Whig  leaders,  "  I  will  not  be  a  Doge."  He  balanced 
parties.  He  baffled  them  as  the  Puritans  baffled  them  fifty  years 
before.  The  reign  of  Anne  was  a  struggle  between  the  Venetian  and 
the  English  systems.  Two  great  Whig  nobles,  Argyle  and  Somerset, 
woi-thy  of  seats  in  the  Council  of  Ten,  forced  their  sovereign  on  her 
death-bed  to  change  the  Ministry.  They  accomplished  their  object ; 
they  brought  in  a  new  family  on  their  own  terms.  George  I.  was  a 
Doge,  George  H.  was  a  Doge  ;  they  were  what  William  HI.,  a  great 
man,  would  not  be.  George  HI.  tried  not  to  be  a  Doge,  but  it  was 
impossible  materially  to  resist  the  deeply-laid  combination.  He 
might  get  rid  of  the  Whig  magnificoes,  but  he  could  not  I'id  himself 
of  the  Venetian  constitution.  And  a  Venetian  constitution  did  govern 
England,  from  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  till  1832.  Now, 
I  do  not  ask  you  here  to  relinquish  the  political  tenets  which  in 
ordinary  times  would  have  been  your  inheritance.  All  I  say  is,  the 
constitution  introduced  by  your  ancestors  having  been  subverted 
by  their  descendants  your  contemporaries,  beware  of  still  holding 
Venetian  principles  of  government  when  you  have  not  a  Venetian 
constitution  to  govern  with. 


46  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAC0N8F1ELD. 

Coningsby  goes  to  see  his  friend  Milbank  at 
Oxford,  and  his  theme  is  still  the  sfime,  the  degrada- 
dation  of  the  Monarchy  and  the  Church,  the  transitory 
character  of  the  settlement  of  1832,  and  the  possibility 
of  finding  in  the  Crown  a  cure  for  "  the  moral  and 
material  disorganization  "  which  society  presents.  For 
this  purpose,  says  Coningsby — 

I  would  accustom  the  public  mind  to  the  contemplation  of  an 
existing  though  torpid  power  in  the  constitution,  capable  of  removing 
our  social  grievances  were  we  to  transfer  to  it  those  prerogatives 
which  the  Parhament  has  gradually  usurped  and  used  in  a  manner 
which  has  produced  the  present  material  and  moral  disorganization. 
The  House  of  Commons  is  the  house  of  a  few ;  the  Sovereign  is  the 
sovereign  of  all.  The  proper  leader  of  the  people  is  the  individual 
who  sits  upon  the  throne. 

Representation  is  not  necessarily,  or  even  in  a  principal  sense,  par- 
liamentary. Parliament  is  not  sitting  at  this  moment,  and  yet  the 
nation  is  represented  in  its  highest  as  well  as  in  its  most  minute 
interests.  Not  a  grievance  escapes  notice  and  redress.  I  see  in  the 
newspaper  this  morning  that  a  pedagogue  has  brutally  chastised  his 
pupil.  It  is  a  fact  known  over  all  England.  We  must  not  forget 
that  a  principle  of  government  is  reserved  for  our  days,  that  we 
shall  not  find  in  our  Aristotle,  or  even  in  the  forests  of  Tacitus,  nor 
in  our  Saxon  Wittenagemotes  nor  in  our  Plantagenet  parliaments. 
Opinion  now  is  supreme,  and  Opinion  speaks  in  print.  The  represen- 
tation of  the  Press  is  far  more  complete  than  the  representation  of 
Parliament.  Parliamentary  representation  was  the  happy  device  of  a 
ruder  age,  to  which  it  was  admirably  adapted — an  age  of  semi- 
civilization,  when  there  was  a  leading  class  in  the  community — but  it 
exhibits  many  symptoms  of  desuetude.  It  is  controlled  by  a  system 
of  representation  more  vigorous  and  comprehensive,  which  absorbs 
its  duties  and  fulfils  them  more  efficiently,  and  in  which  discussion  is 
pursued  on  fairer  terms,  and  often  with  more  depth  and  information. 

If  we  are  forced  to  revolutionise,  let  us  propose  to  our  consideration 
the  idea  of  a  free  monarchy  established  on  fundamental  laws,  itself 
the  apex  of  a  vast  pile  of  municipal  and  local  government  ruling  an 
educated  people,  represented  by  a  free  and  intellectual  press.  Before 
such  a  royal  authority,  supported  by  such  a  national  opinion,  the 
sectional  anomalies  of  our  country  would  disappear. 

The  future  fortunes  of  Coningsby  himself  we  shall 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  47 

refer  to  at  a  later  stage.  But  from  the  above  extracts 
the  reader  will  be  able  to  discern  for  himself  the  nature 
of  the  political  system  which  was  recommended  in  the 
pages  of  Cofii/ff/sbi/,  as  a  cure  for  the  social  chaos 
and  disintegration  which  had  followed  the  Reform  Bill 
of  1832.  That  subsequent  events  have  justified  a 
good  deal  of  the  language  which  fifty  years  ago  was 
thought  fantastic,  and  even  puerile,  will  hardly  be 
denied.  The  House  of  Commons  has  certainly  not 
risen  in  public  opinion  since  Coniiigshy  first  saw  the 
light.  Many  of  the  problems  therein  referred  to  have 
only  increased  in  intensity  within  the  last  half  century. 
Conin()d)ij,  therefore,  has  quite  lived  down  the  charges 
originally  brought  against  it  of  having  been  written 
exclusively  for  effect  without  any  regard  to  sober 
reality,  or  probability.  What  was  then  despised, 
ridiculed,  and  made  a  butt  for  the  sarcasms  of  every 
fifth-rate  political  hack  who  trod  the  pavement  of  Pall 
Mall  has  actually  come  to  pass.  Toryism  has  appealed 
to  the  people,  and  appealed  with  success ;  the  degene- 
racy of  the  House  of  Commons  is  admitted  and 
lamented  by  all  parties;  the  restoration  to  local 
jurisdictions  of  many  of  the  powers  which  Parliament 
has  absorbed  into  itself  is  the  acknowledged  remedy. 
And  if  the  progress  of  events  has  not  strengthened  the 
prerogative  of  the  Crown,  it  has  made  the  **  individual*' 
more  powerful,  for  a  modern  Prime  Minister  with  a 
party  majority  at  his  back  is  much  more  absolute  now 
than  he  was  before  the  Reform  Bill. 

Coniu()shy  was  published  in  the  spring  of  1844,  and 
for  a  time  nothing  else  was  talked  about.  Many 
years  afterwards  Mr.  Croker  pretended  that  he  had 
never  heard  of  Coniiuji^hy.  Let  those  believe  it  who 
will.     The    book  contained   several    striking  portraits, 


48  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEAG0N8FIELB, 

but  the  most  striking  of  all  was  Eigby.  John  Wilson 
Croker  was  Rigby,  Lord  Henry  Sydney  was  Lord  John 
Manners,  Buokhurst  was  Bailie  Cochrane,  Eustace 
Lyle,  Ambrose  Philips.  Coningsby  was  George  Smythe. 
Beaumanoir,  of  course,  was  Belvoir.  But  of  all  the  por- 
traits in  the  gallery  Rigby  was  facile  princeps.  The 
likeness  was  recognised  at  once.  Whatever  might 
be  thought  of  the  charges  of  meanness  and  base- 
ness brought  against  him,  there  were  some  qualities 
assigned  to  him  about  which  there  could  be  no  misfc^ke. 
His  love  of  contradiction  and  dictation,  his  determination 
to  be  always  in  the  right,  and  to  allow  no  one  to  b^  right 
except  himself,  were  too  well  known  for  anyone  ac- 
quainted with  the  original  to  doubt  for  a  moment  who 
Rigby  was.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  whose  intimacy 
with  Croker  never  cooled,  said  that  he  once  tried  to 
prove  to  him  that  he  did  notknc^the  difference  between 
a  scarp  and  a  counterscarp.  This  story  by  itself  is 
sufficient  to  prove  that  Rigby  was  no  exaggeration. 

The  clubs  rang  with  the  inimitable  satire.  In  every 
house  in  the  country  which  pretended  to  any  interest 
in  either  politics,  literature,  or  fashion,  the  book  lay 
upon  the  table.  Have  you  read  Coningsby  ?  was  the 
stock  question  which  people  asked  each  other  at  dinner 
parties.  And  then  for  Mr.  Croker  to  pretend  some 
years  afterwards  that  he  had  never  heard  of  Coningsby 
is  too  heavy  a  tax  on  our  credulity. 

But,  as  types  distinct  from  individuals,  the  palm  is 
borne  off  by  the  two  brothers-in-arms.  Tadpole  and 
Taper;  the  two  political  underlings,  half  hacks,  half 
adventurers,  employed  to  do  the  dirty  work  of  the 
party,  and  trusted  to  some  extent  in  consequence; 
members  of  the  Carlton,  received  in  society,  and  rather 
courted  than  otherwise  by  noble  and  wealthy  outsiders, 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  49 

but  the  incarnation  of  all  that  is  lowest  and  meanest 
in  public  life,  mistaking  dodges  for  statesmanship,  and 
party  slang  for  the  vocabulary  of  political  wisdom. 

But  only  half  of  what  Disraeli  had  in  his  mind  when 
he  undertook  the  exposure  of  Peelite  Conservatism  was 
completed  by  the  publication  of  Coningshy,  In  Con- 
ingshy  we  have  laid  before  us  the  history  of  English 
Parties,  and  its  effect  upon  the  Monarchy  and  the 
Church.  We  are  now  to  advance  a  step  farther  and 
observe  its  effect  upon  the  people.  He  had  only  touched 
the  fringe  of  the  labour  question  in  Goiiingshy,  Henry 
Sydney  and  his  Maypoles,  Eustace  Lyle  and  his  doles, 
were  only  little  prettinesses,  which  did  not  pretend  to 
go  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  In  Byhil  he  struck  a 
deeper  note. 

On  the  30th  of  August  1844,  he  writes  to  his  sister 
that  Manchester  has  invited  him  to  take  the  chair  at 
its  literary  meeting.  He  accepted  the  invitation,  and 
took  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  him  of  making  a  tour 
through  the  manufacturing  districts,  and  inspecting  the 
working  of  the  factory  system  with  his  own  eyes.  He 
was  accompanied  by  Lord  Jchn  Manners  and  the  Hon. 
George  Smythe,  and  the  speeches  which  they  delivered 
at  Manchester  and  at  Bingley,  in  Yorkshire,  were  repub- 
lished in  1885,  under  the  title  of  Young  England.  On 
the  title  page  we  read — "As  attempts  are  being  made  to 
persuade  the  new  electors  that  small  farms,  allotments, 
and  opportunities  for  physical  and  mental  recreation 
are  new  inventions  of  the  new  Birmingham  school  of  So- 
cialistic politicians,  it  has  been  thought  well  to  republish 
this  little  volume  exactly  as  it  appeared  40  years  ago." 
No  editor's  name  appears  on  the  title  page.  But  we 
can  scarcely  be  wrong  in  assigning  that  office  to  Lord 
John  Manners  himself. 

4 


60  LIFJS  OF  LORD  BEAC0N8FWLD, 

Near  the  town  of  Bingley,  Mrs.  Ferrand  had  recently 
established  some  allotments  for  the  benefit  of  operatives,, 
and  it  was  in  reference  to  these  that  Lord  John  Manners 
spoke  some  forty-tbree  years  ago,  in  support  of  those 
views  which  the  Radicals  have  since  stolen  from  the 
Tories,  and  in  which  many  of  the  Tories  themselves  do 
not  recognise  their  ancient  inheritance.  But  it  is  chiefly 
in  connection  with  Mr.  Disraeli's  observations  on  the 
state  of  factory  labour  that  this  visit  will  be  remembered, 
although  his  description  of  *'  war  to  the  cottage,"  in  the 
pages  of  his  second  great  political  novel,  is  inferior  only 
to  the  vivid  picture  which  he  has  drawn  of  the  cellars 
and  garrets,  the  "butties*'  and  the  **  Tommy  shops," 
of  our  great  mining  and  manufacturing  capitals. 

The  **  degradation  of  the  people,"  then,  is  the  theme 
of  Syhilf  and  in  it  Mr.  Disraeli  discovers  that  pal- 
liation of  Chartism  which  he  had  glanced  at  in  his 
speech  of  1839.  Sybil  Gerard  is  the  daughter  of  an 
operative,  but  both  father  and  daughter  are  exceptional 
members  of  the  class.  Gerard  is  the  descendant  of  an 
ancient  family,  which  has  gradually  sunk  into  the  ranks 
of  labour,  but  still  retains  its  traditions,  and  the  hope 
of  regaining  its  estates.  He  is  a  manly,  generous, 
good-hearted  Radical  of  the  Cobbett  type,  and  leader  of 
the  physical  force  section  of  the  Chartists.  He  earns 
excellent  wages  at  a  mill  which  is  conducted  on  excep- 
tionally humane  and  kindly  principles,  and  he  and  his 
daughter  live  in  a  cottage  outside  the  town,  quite  above 
the  reach  of  poverty.  They  are  Roman  Catholics,  and 
Sybil,  young,  beautiful,  and  highly  educated  by  the  Abbess 
of  a  neighbouring  convent,  is  destined  for  the  veil,  as 
it  is  totally  impossible  she  could  marry  in  her  own  sta- 
tion of  life.  When  Sybil,  we  suppose,  is  about  eigh- 
teen, she  accidentally  makes  the  acquaintance  of  Charles 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  51 

Egremont,  the  brother  of  Lord  Marney,  the  owner  of 
large  estates  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  one  of  the  worst 
specimens  of  the  worst  class  of  English  aristocracy,  a 
cynical  and  selfish  utilitarian,  whose  character  is  Dis- 
raeli's masterpiece.  Charles  Egremont,  however,  is  of 
a  very  different  mould.  He  is  so  struck  with  the  con- 
versation of  Gerard,  who  tells  him  at  their  first  meeting 
that  the  Queen  reigns  over  "  two  nations,  the  Rich  and 
the  Poor,"  that  he  resolves  to  see  more  of  the  people ; 
assumes  the  character  of  a  journalist  unattached,  and 
takes  lodgings  near  the  town  of  Mowbray.  The  rest 
may  easily  be  imagined.  Egremont  falls  in  love  with 
Sybil,  and  Sybil  and  Gerard  between  them  almost  con- 
vert Egremont.  The  reader  now  knows  enough  to  un- 
derstand the  following  extracts.  Sybil  and  Egremont 
meet  upon  an  errand  of  charity,  the  latter  accompanied 
by  the  clergyman  of  the  parish,  Mr.  St.  Lys  :^- 

"  You  feel  deeply  for  the  people,"  said  Egremont,  looking  at  her 
earnestly. 

"And  do  you  not?  Your  presence  here  assures  me  of  it,"  said 
Sybil.  '<  When  I  remember  what  the  English  people  once  was;  the 
truest,  the  freest,  and  the  bravest,  the  best  natured  and  the  best 
looking,  the  happiest  and  most  religious  race  upon  the  surface  of  this 
globe,  and  think  of  them  now,  with  all  their  crimes  and  all  their 
slavish  sufferings,  their  soured  spirits  and  their  stunted  forms,  their 
lives  without  enjoyment  and  their  deaths  without  hope,  I  may  well 
feel  for  them,  even  if  I  were  not  the  daughter  of  their  blood." 

After  Egremont  has  become  intimate  with  the  Ge- 
rards,  their  conversation  generally  turns  on  these 
subjects.  Gerard  tells  his  friend  that  England  is  still 
divided  between  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered  : — 

"  But  do  not  you  think,"  said  Egremont,  "  that  such  a  distinction 
has  long  ceased  to  exist  ?  " 

"In  what  degree?"  asked  Gerard.  "Many  circumstances  of  op- 
pression have  doubtless  gradually  disappeared  ;  but  that  has  arisen 
from  the  change  of  manners,  not  from  any  political  recognition  of 

4  * 


52  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

their  injustice.  The  same  course  of  time  which  has  removed  many 
enormities,  more  shocking,  however,  to  our  feelings  than  to  those  who 
devised  and  endured  them,  has  simultaneously  removed  many  alle- 
viating circumstances.  If  the  mere  baron's  grasp  be  not  so  ruthless, 
the  champion  we  found  in  the  Church  is  no  longer  so  ready.  The 
spirit  of  conquest  has  adapted  itself  to  the  changing  circumstances 
of  ages  ;  and  however  its  results  vary  in  f oi-m,  in  degi-ee  they  are  much 
the  same." 

"  But  how  do  they  show  themselves  ?  " 

"  In  many  circumstances,  which  concern  many  classes  ;  but  I  speak 
of  those  which  touch  my  own  order,  and  therefore  I  say  at  once,  in 
the  degradation  of  the  people." 

"  But  are  the  people  so  degraded  ?  " 

"  There  is  more  serfdom  in  England  now  than  at  any  time  since  the 
Conquest.  I  speak  of  what  passes  under  my  daily  ej^es  when  I  say 
that  those  who  labour  can  as  little  choose  or  change  their  masters 
now,  as  when  they  were  born  thralls.  Thei-e  are  great  bodies  of  the 
working  classes  of  this  country  nearer  to  the  condition  of  brutes  than 
they  have  been  at  any  time  since  the  Conquest.  Indeed,  I  see 
nothing  to  distinguish  them  from  brutes  except  that  their  morals  are 
inferior.  Incest  and  infanticide  are  as  common  among  them  as  among 
the  lower  animals.  The  domestic  principle  wanes  weaker  and  weaker 
every  year  in  England ;  nor  can  we  wonder  at  it  when  there  is  no 
comfoi't  to  cheer  and  no  sentiment  to  hallow  the  home." 

"  I  was  reading  a  work  the  other  day,"  said  Egremont,  "  that  sta- 
tistically proved  that  the  general  condition  of  the  people  was  much 
better  at  this  moment  than  it  had  been  at  any  known  period  of 
histor3^" 

"  Ah  I  yes.  I  know  that  style  of  speculation,"  said  Gerard. 
"  Your  gentleman  who  reminds  you  that  a  working  man  has  now  a 
pair  of  cotton  stockings,  and  that  Harry  the  Eighth  himself  was  not 
as  well  off.  At  any  rate,  the  condition  of  classes  must  be  judged  of 
by  the  age,  and  by  their  relation  with  each  other.  One  need  not  dwell 
on  that.  I  deny  the  premisses.  I  deny  that  the  condition  of  the 
main  body  is  better  now  than  at  any  other  period  of  our  history ; 
that  it  is  as  good  as  it  has  been  at  several.  I  say,  for  instance,  the 
people  were  better  clothed,  oetter  lodged,  and  better  fed  just  before 
the  War  of  the  Roses  than  they  are  at  this  moment.  We  know  how 
an  English  peasant  lived  in  those  times ;  he  ate  flesh  every  day,  he 
never  drank  water,  was  well  housed,  and  clothed  in  stout  woollens. 
Nor  are  the  chronicles  necessary  to  tell  us  this.  The  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment, from  the  Plantagenets  to  the  Tudors,  teach  us  alike  the  price  of 
provisions  and  the  rate  of  wages  ;  and  we  see  in  a  moment  that  the 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  63 

wapfes  of  those  days  brought  as  much  sustenance  and  comfort  as  a 
reasonable  man  could  desh'e." 

"I  know  how  deeply  you  feel  upon  this  subject,"  said  Egremont, 
turning  to  Sybil. 

"  Indeed  it  is  the  only  subject  that  ever  engages  my  thought,"  she 
replied,  "  except  one." 

«  And  that  one  ?  " 

"  Is  to  see  the  people  once  more  kneel  before  our  Blessed  Lady," 
replied  Sybil. 

As  the  views  expressed  in  this  passage  were  much  ridi- 
culed when  they  first  appeared,  we  would  refer  the 
reader  to  an  authority  that  will  be  allowed  to  be  unim- 
peachable :  the  Eeport,  namely,  of  the  Commission  for 
Enquiry  into  the  Employment  of  Women  and  Children 
in  Agriculture,  in  which  the  connection,  of  the  pea- 
santry with  the  land  and  their  physical  condition  is 
traced  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  the  present  date. 
The  Blue-book  of  1868  fully  corroborates  the  novel  of 
1845,  and  shows  that  in  this  as  in  many  other  parti- 
culars, both  in  Coningsby  and  Sybil,  which  have  been 
called  in  question,  Mr.  Disraeli's  statements  were 
founded  on  accurate  knowledge. 

We  must  now  suppose  the  Chartist  movement  to  have 
reached  its  height.  The  petition  has  been  presented 
and  rejected,  and  the  people  are  represented  as  feeling 
that  they  have*  nothing  more  to  hope  for  from  either 
Party.      "Once,"    says    the    author,    **it    was   other- 


once  the  people  recognised  a  Party  in  the  State  whose  principles 
identified  them  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  multitude ;  but 
when  they  found  the  parochial  constitution  of  the  country  sacrificed 
without  a  struggle,  and  a  rude  assault  made  on  all  local  influences  in 
order  to  establish  a  severely-organized  centralisation,  a  blow  was 
given  to  the  influence  of  the  priest  and  of  the  gentleman,  the  ancient 
champions  of  the  people  against  arbitrary  coui-ts  and  rapacious 
parliaments,  from  which  they  will  find  that  it  requix-es  no  ordinary 
courage  and  wisdom  to  recover. 


54  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEAQONSFIELD, 

In  Si/bil  the  political  views  of  Coningnhy  are  repeated 
and  enforced  by  fresh  arguments;  and  in  the  conclud- 
ing pages  the  aims  of  both  are  thus  expressed : — 

And  thus  I  conclude  the  last  page  of  a  work  which,  though  its  form 
be  light  and  unpretending,  would  yet  aspire  to  suggest  to  its  readers 
some  considerations  of  a  very  opposite  character.  A  year  ago  I  pre- 
sumed to  offer  to  the  public  some  volumes  that  aimed  at  calling  their 
attention  to  the  state  of  our  political  parties,  their  origin,  their  his- 
tory, their  present  position.  In  an  Age  of  political  infidelity,  of  mean 
passions,  and  faulty  thoughts,  I  would  have  impressed  upon  the  rising 
race  not  to  despair,  but  to  seek  in  a  right  understanding  of  the  history 
of  their  country,  and  in  the  energies  of  heroic  youth,  the  elements  of 
national  welfare.  The  present  work  advances  another  step  in  the 
same  emprise.  From  the  state  of  parties,  it  now  would  draw  public 
thought  to  the  state  of  the  people  whom  those  parties  for  two  cen- 
turies have  governed.  The  comprehension  and  the  cure  of  this 
greater  evil  depend  upon  the  same  agencies  as  the  first ;  it  is  the 
past  alone  that  can  explain  the  present,  and  it  is  youth  that  alone 
can  mould  the  remedial  future.  The  written  history  of  our  country 
for  the  last  ten  reigns  has  been  a  mere  phantasm,  giving  to  the  origin 
and  consequence  of  public  transactions  a  character  and  colour  in 
every  respect  dissimilar  to  their  natural  form  and  hue.  In  this 
mighty  mystery  all  thoughts  and  things  have  assumed  an  aspect  and 
title  contrary  to  their  real  quality  and  stylo  ;  Oligarchy  has  been 
called  Liberty ;  an  exclusive  Priesthood  has  been  christened  a 
National  Church ;  Sovereignty  has  been  the  title  of  something  that 
has  had  no  dominion,  while  absolute  power  has  been  wielded  by  those 
who  profess  themselves  the  servants  of  the  People.  In  the  selfish 
strife  of  factions  two  great  existences  have  been  blotted  out  of  the 
history  of  England,  the  Monarch  and  the  Multitude ;  as  the  power  of 
the  Grown  has  diminished  the  privileges  of  the  People  have  disap- 
peared, till  at  length  the  sceptre  has  become  a  pageant,  and  its  sub- 
ject has  degenerated  again  into  a  serf.  It  is  nearly  fourteen  years 
ago,  in  the  popular  frenzy  of  a  mean  and  selfish  revolution,  which 
emancipated  neither  the  Crown  nor  the  People,  that  I  first  took  the 
occasion  to  intimate,  and  then  to  develop,  to  the  first  assembly  of  my 
countrymen  that  I  ever  had  the  honour  to  address,  these  convictions. 
They  have  been  misunderstood,  as  is  ever  for  a  season  the  fate  of 
Truth,  and  they  have  obtained  for  their  promulgator  much  misrepre- 
sentation, as  must  ever  be  the  lot  of  those  who  will  not  follow  the 
beaten  track  of  a  fallacious  custom.  But  Time,  that  brings  all  things, 
has  brought  also  to  the  mind  of  England  some  suspicion  that  the 


YOUNG  ENGLAND.  65 

idols  they  have  so  long  worshipped,  and  the  oracles  that  have  so  long 
deluded  them,  are  not  the  true  ones.  There  is  a  whisper  rising  in 
this  country  that  Loyalty  is  not  a  phrase,  Faith  not  a  delusion,  and 
Popular  Liberty  something  more  diffusive  and  substantial  than  the 
profane  exercise  of  the  sacred  rights  of  Sovereignty  by  political 
classes.  That  we^iay  liye^  to  see  England  once  more  possess  a  free 
monarchy  and  a  privileged  and  prosperous  people  is  my  prayer ;  that 
these  great  consequences  can  only  be  brought  about  by  the  energy 
and  dev^tio»-t)f  our  youth  is  my  persuasion.  We  live  in  an  age  when 
to  be  young  and  to  be  indifferent  can  be  no  longer  synonymous.  We 
must  prepare  for  the  coming  hour.  The  claims  of  the  Future  are 
represented  by  suffering  millions  ;  and  the  youth  of  a  nation  are  the 
trustees  of  Posterity. 

I  have  given  copious  extracts  from  these  two  novels 
because  I  desired  that  the  author  should  speak  for  him- 
self. What  he  intended  to  convey  is  clear  enough ; 
how  far  he  thought  it  practical  is  a  separate  question. 

Si/bil  was  published — appropriately — on  May  Day 
1845,  and  was  dedicated  to  '*  a  perfect  wife.''  It 
attracted  little  less  attention  than  Co?im^sbi/f  and  was 
welcomed  by  the  High  Church  party  as  an  important 
contribution  to  their  literature.  Lord  Ashley,  too, 
and  the  promoters  of  the  Factory  Acts  recognised  a 
powerful  auxiliary  in  the  hand  that  drew  Hell  House 
Yard,  Diggs's  Tommy  Shop,  Devil's  Dust,  and  the 
lodgings  of  Warner,  the  hand-loom  weaver.  Hence- 
forth Mr.  Disraeli  was  everywhere  recognised  as  the 
leader  of  a  political  and  social  revival  which  did  not 
allow  that  the  laws  of  political  economy  were  necessarily, 
at  all  times  and  all  places  and  under  all  circumstances, 
of  paramount  and  absolute  authority. 

In  what  form,  or  under  what  conditions,  he  contem- 
plated the  realisation  of  the  political  ideal  sketched 
out  at  this  period  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  it  is 
quite  certain  that  in  Coninfjshy  and  Sybil,  where  he 
pushes  these  views  to  the  farthest  point  to  which  he 


66  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFAC0N8FIELD. 

ever  carried  them,  he  was  not  contemplating  democracy. 
He  was  fond  of  using  the  word  democracy  to  denote  a 
class — not  a  form  of  government;  and  he  generally 
seems  to  have  meant  by  it  the  people  in  their  political 
capacity;  the  people  invested  with  political  rights;  and 
regarded  as  a  political  force.  But  that  they  should  be 
supreme — ut  pltirimtim  pltirimi  valeant — was  never  his 
intention  for  a  moment v  We  can  only  approach  his 
meaning  by  generalising  from  a  large  number  of  state- 
ments published  in  various  shapes  and  uttered  at 
various  times.  We  wer^o_have  a  monarchy  with^real 
powers  and  prerogatives  for  daily  use.  "^^he  Sovereign 
w'as''nor"onIy~to~reign,  but  to  govern.  Nor  did  his 
speculations  point  in  the  direction  of  a  democratic 
despotism,  for  equally  important,  in  his  eyes,  with  the 
revival  of  the  Monarchy  and  the  Church,  was  the  main- 
tenance of  our  "  territorial  constitution,"  and^he 
aathority  and  jurisdictpn  of  j,he_gentry,  a  system  in- 
compatible with  despotism  in  any  form.  In  his  later 
years  he  seems  to  have  seen  that  one-half  of  this  scheme, 
the  revival  of  prerogative,  was  for  the  present,  at  all 
events,  unattainable;  and  this  conviction  must  have 
modified  his  views  upon  the  other  parts  of  the  system 
which  constituted  the  Young  England  creed.  The 
extension  of  popular  functions  was  to  be  balanced  by 
the  extension  of  monarchical  authority.  Unless  the 
two  could  be  combined  he  would,  perhaps,  have  recom- 
mended neither.  But  if  the  first  should  become 
inevitable,  as  it  did  after  Lord  John  Russell  re-opened 
the  Reform  Question,  then,  in  the  absence  of  the  second, 
we  must  do  the  best  we  could  with  our  existing 
materials,  and  not  disdain  even  the  help  of  the  oligarchy 
to  preserve  the  balance  of  the  constitution.  At  the 
cost  of  anticipating  events  we  may  be  allowed,  perhaps. 


YOUNG  ENGLAND,  67 

at  this  point,  to  quote  his  speech  of  1873,  as  showing 
more  clearly  than  any  other  passage  to  which  we  can 
refer,  the  degree  in  which,  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight,  he 
still  clung  to  his  original  convictions,  and  the  form 
which  they  had  taken  in  his  mind,  after  thirty  years' 
experience  of  progress. 

I  believe  that  the  Tory  Party  at  the  present  time  ccctipies  the 
most  satisfactory  position  which  it  has  held  since  the  days  of  its 
greatest  statesmen,  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Grenville.  It  has  divested 
itself  of  those  excrescences  which  are  not  indigenous  to  its 
native  growth,  but  which  in  a  time  of  long  prosperity  were  the  con- 
sequence partly  of  negligence,  and  partly,  perhaps,  in  a  certain 
degree,  of  ignorance  of  its  traditions.  We  are  now  emerging  from 
the  fiscal  period  in  which  almost  all  the  public  men  of  this  genera- 
tion have  been  brought  up.  All  the  questions  of  Trade  and  Naviga- 
tion, of  the  Incidence  of  Taxation,  and  of  Public  Economy,  are 
settled.  But  there  are  other  questions  not  less  important,  and  of 
deeper  and  higher  reach  and  range,  which  must  soon  engage  the 
attention  of  the  country :  the  attinbutes  of  a  constitutional 
monarchy — -whether  the  aristocratic  principle  should  be  recognised  in 
ourConstitution,  and,  if  so,  in  what  form?  Whether  the  Commons 
of  England  shall  remain  an  estate  of  the  realm,  numerous  but  privi- 
leged, and  qualified;  or  whether  they  should  degenerate  into  an 
indiscnmihafe~15rattttu3c?  Whether^  a  NationaP Church  shall  be 
maintained ;  and  if  so,  what  shall  be  its  rights  and  duties  ?  The 
functions  of  corporations,  the  sacredness  of  endowments,  the  tenure  of 
landed  property,  the  free  disposal,  and  even  the  existence  of  any  kind 
of  property,  all  those  institutions,  and  all  those  principles  which  have 
made  this  country  free  and  famous,  and  conspicuous  for  its  union  of 
order  with  liberty,  are  now  impugned,  and  in  due  time  will  become 
great  and  burning  questions. 

These  may  fitly  be  called  the  last  words  of  Young 
England ;  and  they  breathe  a  spirit  of  Conservatism 
which  thirty  years'  experience  had  shown  to  be  a 
necessary  element  even  of  the  most  popular  Toryism. 

In  spite  of  Mr.  Disraeli's  attack  upon  Ritualism  at  a 
later  period  of  his  life,  there  was  much  in  common  between 
the  Anglican  revival  and  Young  England ;  Afitiquam 
exquirite    matrem    was    the    motto    of    each.       Both 


58  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIFLD. 

originated  in  the  same  source,  the  political  and  religious 
latitudinarianism  which  followed  the  revolution  con- 
sumated  in  1832,  as  they  follow  all  revolutions.  Each 
aimed  at  a  revival  of  faith,  by  setting  up  before  the 
people  a  better  system  than  the  one  which  had  collapsed, 
and  recalling  to  their  minds  what  had  been  the  essential 
principles  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  seventeenth, 
and  of  the  Tory  party  in  the  eighteenth,  century  ;  and  the 
work  in  which  Newman  explains  his  own  conception  of 
the  attempt  in  which  he  was  engaged,  might  serve, 
mutatis  mutandis,  for  an  epitome  of  Mr.  Disraeli's. 
**  It  remains  to  be  tried,"  wrote  Newman,  in  1837, 
"  whether,  what  is  called  Anglo-Catholicism — the 
religion  of  Andrews,  Laud,  Hammond,  Butler  and 
Wilson — is  capable  of  being  professed,  acted  on,  and 
maintained  on  a  large  sphere  of  action ;  or  whether  it 
be  a  mere  modification  of  a  transition  state  of  either 
Komanism  or  popular  Protestantism."  So,  in  1843,  it 
remained  to  be  tried — so,  at  least,  thought  Young 
England — whether  the  Toryism  of  the  patriot  King  was 
capable  of  being  professed,  acted  on,  and  maintained 
on  a  large  sphere  of  action  ;  or  whether  it  was  a  mere 
modification  of  either  Absolutism  or  Venetianism.  That 
the  experiment  has  left  a  real  and  lasting  impression  on 
English  politics,  will  be  allowed,  though  its  influence 
has  been  much  more  indirect  and  imperceptible  than 
that  of  the  Anglican  movement ;  and  that  it  sprang 
from  some  want  of  which  modern  society  was  only  half 
conscious,  may  fairly  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that 
between  Disraeli  and  Carlyle  there  is  a  fundamental 
agreement  in  principle.  The  '*  individual  "  of  the  one 
is  only  **  the  hero  "  of  the  other. 


69 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE. 

1845-52. 

First  direct  attack  on  Peel — The  Post  Office  scandal — Debate  en 
agricultural  distress — Tour  on  the  Continent — Disraeli's  econo- 
mical policy — Fall  of  Peel's  administration — Visit  to  Belvoir 
Castle — Disraeli  leader  of  the  Opposition — Reconstruction  of  the 
Conservative  party — Speech  on  the  Burdens  upon  Land — Success 
of  Disraeli's  tactics — Social  incidents — The  Life  of  Lord  George 
Bentinck — The  first  Derby  ministry — Bitterness  of  the  Opposition 
— Successes  of  the  Government — The  London  Press — Result  of 
the  general  election — The  Budget — Defeat  of  the  Government. 

I  HAVE  referred  to  Mr.  Disraeli's  speech  on  the  Irish 
Arms  Bill  in  1843,  when  he  wondered  why  the  descen- 
dants of  the  Cavaliers  should  persist  in  governing  Ire- 
land on  the  principles  of  the  Puritans.  In  February 
1844,  he  spoke  on  Ireland  again,  when  he  uttered  the 
memorable  words,  *'  An  absentee  aristocracy,  an  alien 
church,  and  a  starving  population — that  is  the  Irish 
question."  But  it  was  in  June  1844  that  he  made  his 
first  direct  attact  upon  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  began  the 


60  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEACONSFIELD. 

battle,  the  wounds  inflicted  in  which  have  scarcely 
healed  yet. 

The  speech  of  the  17th  of  June  was  on  the  Sugar 
Duties.  In  the  same  session  Ministers  had  been  beaten 
on  a  motion  of  Lord  Ashley's,  and  Sir  Robert  had  com- 
pelled the  House  to  rescind  its  vote.  They  were  beaten 
a  second  time  on  the  Sugar  Duties  by  Mr.  Mills,  when 
the  House  was  again  condemned  to  a  similar  act  of 
self-abasement.  Disraeli  now  reminded  Sir  Robert  of 
what  he  had  said  in  1841,  namely,  that  he  had  never 
joined  in  the  anti-slavery  cry,  and  would  not  then  join 
in  the  cheap  sugar  cry.  He  had  now,  said  the  speaker, 
joined  in  both,  but  there  was  one  place  where  his 
ancient  predilections  were  still  allowed  full  play,  and 
that  was  on  the  benches  just  behind  him.  "  There  the 
gang  is  still  assembled,  and  there  the  thong  of  the  whip 
still  sounds.^' 

The  next  session,  1845,  was  an  eventful  one.  It 
began  with  the  famous  "Post  Office  Scandal,"  and 
included  a  great  debate  on  agricultural  distress,  and 
another  on  the  Maynooth  Grant.  Mr.  Disraeli  spoke 
on  all  three,  but  it  was  rather  to  the  conduct  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel  than  to  the  merits  of  the  question  that  he 
addressed  himself  in  each  case.  In  the  previous  year  a 
complaint  had  been  made  to  Parliament  that  the  letters 
of  Mazzini  and  others  had  been  opened  at  the  General 
Post  Office  by  order  of  the  Home  Secretary.  A  com- 
mittee of  inquiry  was  appointed,  but  their  report  was 
considered  so  unsatisfactory,  that  in  1845  Mr.  T.  Dun- 
combe,  who  had  moved  for  the  first  committee,  moved 
for  another.  The  motion  was  defeated  by  a  large  majo- 
rity, and  he  then  returned  to  the  charge  by  demanding 
the  production  of  the  Post  Office  books.  He  was  again 
beaten.     But  Mr.  Disraeli  supported  him  on  both  occa- 


SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE,     61 

sions,  and  reproached  the  Prime  Minister  with  making 
a  party  question  of  what  had  nothing  to  do  with  party. 
Some  ministers,  he  said,  might  be  excused  for  acting 
in  this  manner.  One  who  had  a  very  small  majority, 
or  none  at  all,  might  think  it  necessary  to  exact  strict 
obedience.  But  Sir  Robert  Peel  might  be  more  in- 
dulgent. He  occupied  an  impregnable  position.  He 
had  no  need  of  a  coalition.  He  had  got  his  own 
majority  behind  him,  and  he  had  appropriated  the 
principles  of  the  Opposition.  "The  Right  Honour-/ 
able  gentleman  had  caught  the  Whigs  bathing  and  ) 
walked  away  with  their  clothes.'*  He  had  nothing 
to  fear  from  either  side.  He  had  the  votes  of  one 
and  the  principles  of  the  other.  The  sarcasm  has 
always  seemed  to  me  to  have  been  rather  dragged  in 
by  the  head  and  shoulders ;  but  at  the  time  it  was 
irresistible. 

About  a  fortnight  afterwards,  on  the  17th  of  March, 
followed  the  debate  on  Agricultural  Distress.  It  was 
moved  by  Mr.  Mills  **  that  in  the  application  of  surplus 
revenue  towards  relieving  the  burdens  of  the  country, 
due  regard  should  be  had  to  the  necessity  of  affording 
relief  to  the  agricultural  interest."  In  his  speech  on 
this  occasion,  Mr.  Disraeli  was  delivered  of  one  of  the 
most  finished  and  pointed  satires  which  ever  fell  from 
his  lips.  Referring  to  Sir  Robert's  change  of  tone 
towards  the  agricultural  interest,  he  said : — 

There  is  no  doubt  a  difference  in  the  right  honourable  gentleman's 
demeanour  as  Leader  of  the  Opposition  and  as  Minister  of  the  Crown. 
But  that's  the  old  story;  you  must  not  contrast  too  strongly 
the  hours  of  courtship  with  the  years  of  possession.  'Tis  very  true 
that  the  right  honourable  gentleman's  conduct  is  different.  I 
remember  him  making  his  protection  speeches.  They  were  the  best 
speeches  I  ever  heai'd.  It  was  a  great  thing  to  hear  the  right 
honourable  say,  "  I  would  rather  be  the  leader  of  the  gentlemen  of 


62  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFAC0N8FIELD, 

England  than  possess  the  confidence  of  sovereigns."  That  was  a 
grand  thing.  We  don't  hear  much  of  the  "  gentlemen  of  England" 
Qow.  But  what  of  that  ?  They  have  the  pleasures  of  memory,  the 
charm  of  reminiscences.  They  were  his  first  love,  and  though  he 
may  not  kneel  to  them  now  as  in  the  hour  of  passion,  still  they  can 
recall  the  past ;  and  nothing  is  more  useless  or  unwise  than  these 
scenes  of  crimination  and  reproach,  for  we  know  that  in  all  these 
cases,  when  the  beloved  object  has  ceased  to  charm,  it  is  in  vain  to 
appeal  to  the  feelings.  You  know  that  this  is  true.  Every  man, 
almost,  has  gone  through  it.  My  honourable  friends  reproach  the 
right  honourable  gentleman.  The  right  honourable  gentleman  does 
what  he  can  to  keep  them  quiet ;  he  sometimes  takes  refuge  in  arro- 
gant silence,  and  sometimes  he  treats  them  with  haughty  frigidity ; 
and  if  they  knew  anything  of  human  nature,  they  would  take  the  hint 
and  shut  their  mouths.  But  they  won't.  And  what  then  happens  ? 
What  happens  under  all  such  circumstances  ?  The  right  honourable 
gentleman  being  compelled  to  interfere,  sends  down  his  valet,  who 
says  in  the  genteelest  maimer,  "  We  can  have  no  whining  here  I "  And 
that.  Sir,  is  exactly  the  case  of  the  great  agricultural  interest — that 
beauty  which  everybody  wooed,  and  one  deluded.  There  is  a  fatality 
in  such  charms,  and  we  now  seem  to  approach  the  catastrophe  of  her 
career.  Protection  appears  to  be  in  about  the  same  condition  that 
Protestantism  was  in  1828.  The  country  will  draw  its  moral.  For 
my  part,  if  we  are  to  have  Free  Trade,  I,  who  honour  genius,  prefer 
that  such  measures  should  be  proposed  by  the  honourable  member  for 
Stockport  (Mr.  Cobden)  than  by  one  who,  through  skilful  parliamen- 
tary manoeuvres,  has  tampered  with  the  generous  confidence  of  a 
great  people,  and  of  a  great  party.  For  myself,  I  care  not  what  may 
be  the  result.  Dissolve,  if  you  please,  the  Parliam,ent  you  have 
betrayed,  and  appeal  to  the  people,  who,  I  believe,  mistlust  you.  For 
me  there  remains  this,  at  least,  the  opportunity  of  expressing  thus 
publicly  my  belief  that  a  Conservative  Government  is  an  organized 
hypocrisy. 

The  valet  was  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert,  and  the  sting 
"was  never  either  forgotten  or  forgiven. 

Disraeli's  opposition  to  the  Maynooth  Grant,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  statement,  broke  up  the  Young  Eng- 
land party,  but  his  speech  on  the  second  reading  is 
remarkable  rather  for  an  excursus  on  Party  government 
than  for  any  views  which  it  contains  on  the  question 
of  Roman  Catholic  endowment.     He  warns  Sir  Robert 


8IB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE.     63 

Peel  that  he  is  breaking  up  the  system  of  Party,  and 
that  the  destruction  of  Party  means  the  destruction  of 
Parliamentary  government.  There  was  plenty  to  be 
said,  he  added,  against  the  Party  system,  only  he 
cautioned  the  House  not  to  undermine  it  with  their 
eyes  shut,  and  without  seeing  what  they  were  about. 
The  breach  between  the  minister  and  the  able  and 
audacious  mutineer  who  was  rapidly  forming  a  party 
of  his  own  was  now  complete,  and  when,  in  the 
following  year  Sir  Robert  abandoned  Protection 
altogether,  even  those  who  had  condemned  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli's personalities  were  compelled  to  acknowledge 
his  foresight. 

In  the  autumn  of  1845,  Mr.  Disraeli  went  abroad  again, 
and  took  a  house  for  a  month  or  two  at  Oassel,  where 
he  found  bad  accommodation  but  a  fine  country  and 
excellent  cookery.  **  Our  cook,"  he  wrote  to  his  sister, 
**  stews  pigeons  in  the  most  delicious  way ;  eggs,  cloves, 
and  onions  in  a  red  brown  sauce,  a  dish  of  the  time  of 
the  Duke  of  Alva,"  He  returned  by  Paris  in  December, 
when  he  had  an  audience  of  the  King  and  Queen,  and 
met  Washington  Irving,  whom  he  thought  vulgar  and 
stupid.  It  was  while  he  was  at  Paris  that  he  heard  of 
the  Ministerial  crisis  in  England,  and  as  the  letters  to 
his  sister  break  off  at  this  point,  we  presume  he  lost  no 
time  in  returning  to  the  scene  of  action. 

There  is  here  a  gap  in  the  correspondence,  which, 
with  one  exception,  extends  to  the  beginning  of  1848, 
and  we  must  now  turn  to  the  Life  of  Lord  George  Ben- 
tinch  for  Mr.  Disraeli's  own  version  of  the  great  Free 
Trade  struggle.  This  book  was  not  published  till  1852. 
But  we  must  avail  ourselves  of  its  contents  in  tracing 
the  career  of  Mr.  Disraeli,  through  the  two  momentous 
years  which  intervene  between  the  autumn  of  1846  and 


64  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELJ). 

the  autumn  of  1848.  Not  that  we  need  linger  on  them 
very  long,  Disraeli  took  up  the  position  from  the  first, 
not  that  Free  Trade  was  in  the  abstract  indefensible,  for 
his  great  heroes,  Boliiigbroke,  Shelburne,  and  Pitt  had 
been  Free  Traders,  but  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  first  of 
all  betrayed  his  party  and  afterwards  insulted  it ;  had 
violated  the  understanding  on  which  he  had  been  placed 
in  power,  and  then  reproached  and  derided  his  followers 
for  adhering  to  the  lessons  which  he  himself  had  taught 
them.  It  is  true  that  Disraeli  was  opposed  then,  and 
was  opposed  to  the  last,  to  the  unconditional  system  of 
Free  Trade  which  was  preached  by  the  Anti-Corn  Law 
League,  and  which  had  for  its  avowed  object  the  transfer 
of  political  power  from  the  territorial  to  the  commercial 
aristocracy.  But  the  purely  economic  aspects  of  the 
question  he  always  thought  of  secondary  importance.  To 
understand  his  views  fully  we  must  go  back  to  his  earlier 
speeches.  Even  in  1843  he  told  his  constituents  at 
Shrewsbury :  "  Your  corn  laws  are  only  the  outwork  of  a 
great  system,  fixed  and  established  upon  your  territorial 
property  ;  and  the  only  object  the  Leaguers  have,  in 
making  themselves  masters  of  the  outwork,  is  that  they 
may  easily  overcome  the  citadel."*'  On  the  20th  Feb- 
ruary 1846,  on  the  proposal  to  go  into  Committee  of 
the  whole  House  to  consider  the  question  of  the  Corn 
Laws,  he  said  : — 

I  know  that  we  have  been  told,  and  by  one  who,  on  this  subject, 
should  be  the  highest  authority,  that  we  shall  derive  from  this  great 
struggle  not  merely  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  but  the  transfer  of 
power  from  one  class  to  another — to  one  distinguished  for  its  intelli- 
gence and  wealth — the  manufacturers  of  England. 

And  it  was  against  this  transfer  that  he  always  took  up 

his  parable, 

I  repeat  what  I  have  repeated  before,  that  in  this  country  there  are 
special  reasons  why  wo  should  not  only  maintain  the  balance  between 


Of       / 

SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE.     65 


the  tvro  branches  of  our  national  industry,  but  why  we  should  give  a 
preponderance — I  do  not  say  a  predominance,  which  was  the  word 
ascribed  by  the  honourable  member  for  Manchester  to  the  noble  lord 
the  member  for  London ,  but  which  he  never  used — why  we  should 
give  a  preponderance,  for  that  is  the  proper  and  constitutional  word, 
to  the  agricultural  branch  And  the  reason  is,  because  in  England 
we  have  a  territorial  constitution.  We  have  thrown  upon  the  land 
the  revenues  of  the  Church,  the  administration  of  justice,  and  the 
estate  of  the  poor ;  and  this  has  been  done  not  to  gratify  the  pride, 
or  pamper  the  luxury,  of  the  proprietors  of  the  land,  but  because  in  a 
territorial  constitution  you,  and  those  whom  you  have  succeeded,  have 
found  the  only  security  for  self-government,  the  only  barrier  against 
that  centralising  system  which  has  taken  root  in  other  countries. 

The  importance  of  our  **  territorial  constitution  **  is 
the  key-note  of  his  economical  policy.  His  speeches 
are  full  of  it.  And  when  Sir  Kobert  Peel  said  that  he 
would  rather  be  the  leader  of  the  country  gentlemen  of 
England  than  possess  the  confidence  of  princes,  he 
must  have  entertained  the  same  high  opinion  of  it  as 
Mr.  Disraeli  did.  Mr.  Gladstone  has  also  given  us  his 
own  version  of  the  uses  of  a  landed  aristocracy,  and  here 
it  is: — 

"We  think  that  we  ought  to  look  forward  to  bringing  about  a  state 
of  things  in  which  the  landlords  of  Ireland  may  assume,  or  may  more 
generally  assume,  the  position  which  is  happily  held  as  a  class  by 
landlords  in  this  country — a  position  marked  by  residence,  by  per- 
sonal familiarity,  and  by  sympathy  among  the  people  with  whom  they 
live,  by  long  traditional  connection  handed  on  from  generation  to 
generation,  and  marked  by  a  constant  discharge  of  duty  in  every  form 
that  can  be  suggested — be  it  as  to  the  administi-ation  of  justice,  be  it 
as  to  the  defence  of  the  country,  be  it  as  to  the  supply  of  social,  or 
or  spiritual,  or  moral,  or  educational  wants ;  be  it  for  any  pur- 
pose whatever  that  is  recognised  as  good  or  beneficial  in  a  civilised 
society.* 

Whether  Protective  Duties  were  necessary  to  the 
support  of  the  class  whose  existence  is  so  beneficial  to 

*  House  of  Commons,  February  17th,  1870.  Speech  on  Irish  Land 
Act. 

5 


66  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BFACONSFIELD. 

society  is  another  question,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  would 
certainly  not  have  insisted  on  the  affirmative.  All  he 
said  was  that  if  the  Corn  Law  of  1815  were  repealed, 
the  land  must  be  relieved  of  those  peculiar  burdens  for 
which  Protection  was  supposed  to  compensate.  And 
the  justice  of  this  view  seems  now  to  be  admitted  by  all 
parties. 

Disraeli's  speeches  on  Free  Trade  and  the  Agricultural 
interest,  extending  from  January  1846  to  February  1851, 
are  remarkable  for  their  breadth  and  foresight.  He, 
from  the  first,  scouted  Cobden's  idea  that  the  rest  of  the 
world  would  follow  the  example  of  England,  pointing 
out  very  pertinently  that  the  rest  of  the  world  did  not 
subordinate  every  other  national  consideration  to  political 
economy,  and  he  also  uttered  a  prophecy  which  thirty 
years  afterwards  he  had  the  gloomy  satisfaction  of  seeing 
fulfilled  ;— 

It  may  be  vain  now,  in  the  midnight  of  their  intoxication,  to  tell 
them  that  there  will  be  an  awakening  of  bitterness ;  it  may  be  idle 
now,  in  the  springtide  of  their  economic  frenzy,  to  warn  them  that 
there  may  be  an  ebb  of  trouble.  But  the  dark  and  inevitable  hour 
will  arrive.  Then,  when  their  spirit  is  softened  by  misfortune,  they 
will  recur  to  those  principles  that  made  England  great,  and  which, 
in  our  belief,  can  alone  keep  England  great.  Then,  too,  perchance, 
they  may  remember,  not  with  unkindness,  those  who,  betrayed  and 
deserted,  were  neither  ashamed  nor  afraid  to  struggle  for  the  "  good 
old  cause  " — the  cause  with  which  are  associated  principles  the  most 
popular,  sentiments  the  most  entirely  national,  the  cause  of  labour, 
the  cause  of  the  people — the  cause  of  England. 

Mr.  Bright  said  of  this  speech  it  was  the  finest  he 
had  ever  heard.  It  was  delivered  on  the  15th  of  IMay 
1846,  on  the  third  reading  of  the  Corn  Importation 
Bill,  and  in  the  spring  of  1879,  exactly  one  generation 
afterwards.  Lord  Beaconsfield  was  called  upon  to  an- 
swer a  motion  in  the  House  of  Lords  praying  for  a 


SIE  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE.      67 

Royal  Commission  to  enquire  into  the  distressed  state  of 
agriculture.  ** The  dark  and  inevitable  hour'*  had  at 
last  arrived.  But,  as  he  then  told  his  complainants,  it  was 
too  late.  We  could  not  retrace  our  steps.  The  country 
had  decided  after  due  deliberation,  and  by  that  decision 
we  were  bound. 

It  was  at  half-past  one  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
Friday.  June  26,  1846,  that  the  division  was  taken 
on  the  Irish  Coercion  Bill  which  put  an  end  to  Sir 
Robert  Peel's  Administration,  and  of  which  so  vivid  a 
picture  has  been  left  us  in  the  Life  of  Lord  George 
Bentinch, 

But  it  was  not  merely  their  numbers  that  attracted  the  anxious 
observation  of  the  Treasury  Bench  as  the  Protectionists  passed  in 
defile  before  the  Minister  to  the  hostile  lobby.  It  was  impossible  that 
he  could  have  marked  them  without  emotion,  the  flower  of  that  great 
party  which  had  been  so  proud  to  follow  one  who  had  been  so  proud 
to  lead  them.  They  were  men  to  gain  whose  hearts,  and  the  hearts 
of  their  fathers,  had  been  the  aim  and  exultation  of  his  life.  They 
had  extended  to  him  an  unlimited  confidence,  and  an  admiration 
without  stint.  They  had  stood  by  him  in  the  darkest  hour,  and  had 
borne  him  from  the  depths  of  political  despair  to  the  proudest  of 
living  positions.  Right  or  wrong,  they  were  men  of  honour,  breed- 
ing, and  refinement,  high  and  generous  character,  great  weight  and 
station  in  the  country,  which  they  had  ever  placed  at  his  disposal. 
They  had  been  not  only  his  followers  but  his  friends,  had  joined  in  the 
same  pastimes,  drunk  from  the  same  cup,  and  in  the  pleasantness  of 
private  life  had  often  forgotten  together  the  (Jares  and  strife  of  politics. 
He  must  have  felt  something  of  this  while  the  Manners,  the  Somersets, 
the  Bentincks,  the  Lowthers,  and  the  Lennoxes  passed  before  him.  And 
those  country  gentlemen,  those  gentlemen  of  England,  of  whom  but 
five  years  ago  the  very  same  building  was  ringing  with  his  pride  of 
being  the  leader — if  his  heart  were  hardened  to  Sir  Charles  Burrell, 
Sir  William  Jolliffe,  Sir  Charles  Knightly,  Sir  John  Trollope,  Sir 
Edward  Kerrison,  Sir  John  Tyrrell,  he  sui-ely  must  have  had  a 
pang  when  his  eye  rested  on  Sir  John  Yarde  Buller,  his  choice  and 
pattern  country  gentleman,  whom  he  had  himself  selected  and  invited 
but  six  years  back  to  move  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence  in  the  Whig 
Government,  in  order,  against  the  feeling  of  the  Covirt  to  install  Sir 

5  ^ 


68  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFAGONSFIELB. 

Robert  Peel  in  their  stead.  They  trooped  on :  all  the  tnen  of  metal 
and  large-acred  squires  whose  spirit  he  had  so  often  quickened, 
and  -whose  counsel  he  had  so  often  solicited  in  his  fine  Conservative 
speeches  in  "Whitehall  Gardens:  Mr.  Bankes,  with  a  parliamentary 
name,  of  two  centuries  ;  and  Mr.  Christopher  from  that  broad  Lin- 
colnshire which  Protection  had  created ;  and  the  Mileses  and  the  Hen- 
leys  were  there;  and  the  Buncombes,  the  Liddells,  and  the  Yorkes  ; 
and  Devon  had  sent  there  the  stout  heart  of  Mr.  Buck,  and  Wiltshire 
the  pleasant  presence  of  Walter  Long.  Mr.  Newdegate  was  there, 
whom  Sir  Robert  had  himself  recommended  to  the  confidence  of  the 
electors  of  Warwickshire,  as  one  of  whom  he  had  the  highest  hopes ; 
and  Mr.  Alderman  Thompson  was  there,  who,  also  through  Sir 
Robert's  selection,  had  seconded  the  assault  upon  the  Whigs,  led  on 
by  Sir  John  Buller.  But  the  list  is  too  long,  or  good  names  remain 
behind. 

The  Government  were  beaten  byamajority  of  seventy- 
three.  When  Sir  Eobert  was  told,  as  he  sat  upon  the 
Treasury  Bench  before  the  numbers  were  announced, 
**  he  di^  not  reply,  or  even  turn  his  head.  He  looked 
very  grave  and  extended  his  chin,  as  was  his  habit  when 
he  was  annoyed,  and  cared  not  to  speak.  He  began  to 
comprehend  his  position,  and  that  the  Emperor  was 
without  his  army." 

During  the  recess  Disraeli  paid  a  visit  to  the  Duke 
of  Rutland  at  Belvoir  Castle,  which  he  seems  then  to 
have  seen  for  the  first  time.  On  the  10th  of  August 
he  writes  to  his  sister  : — 

I  thought  you  would  like  to  have  a  line  from  Beaumanoir,  though 
it  is  not  in  the  least  like  Beaumanoir,  but  Coningsby  Castle  to  the 
very  life ;  gorgeous  Gothic  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  past,  and  slopes 
and  shi'ubberies  like  Windsor  \  the  general  view,  however,  notwith- 
standing the  absence  of  the  Thames,  much  finer.  Granby  and  myself 
arrived  here  in  a  fly  on  Thursday,  and  were  received  by  two  rows  of 
servants,  boAving  as  we  passed,  which  very  much  reminded  me  of  the 
arrival  of  Coningsby  himself.  Nothing  can  be  more  amiable  than  the 
family  here,  agreeable  and  accomplished  besides.  George  Bentinck 
went  off  this  morning  at  dawn,  the  Duke  of  Richmond  on  Saturday. 
On  that  day  we  rode  over  to  Harlaxton  Manor,  a  chateau  of  Fran9oi8 
I.'s  time,  now  erecting  by  a  Mr.  Gregory.     Yesterday,  after  the  pri- 


SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FBEE  TRADE.      69 

vate  chapel,  we  lionised  the  Castle,  which  I  prefer  to  Windsor,  as  the 
rooms,  in  proportion  to  the  general  edifice,  are  larger  and  more  mag- 
nificent. Afterwards  to  the  Belvoir  kennel,  which  itself  required  a 
day. 


At  the  General  Election  of  1847,  Mr.  Disraeli,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  returned  for  Buckinghamshire,  and  in  a 
speech  delivered  at  Aylesbury  on  the  26th  of  June,  he 
drew  that  distinction  between  Liberal  opinions  and 
popular  principles,  of  which  his  subsequent  career 
afforded  many  singular  illustrations. 

For  one  session  Lord  George  Bentinck,  chiefly  through 
the  exertions  of  Disraeli,  was  the  leader  of  the  Protec- 
tionist party.  But  the  vote  which  he  gave  in  1847  in 
favour  of  the  Jew  Bill  cost  him  his  place,  or  rather 
evoked  remonstrances  which  led  to  his  resignation  of  it. 
Lord  Stanley  was  consulted  on  the  choice  of  his  suc- 
cessor, but  refused  to  interfere,  and  ultimately,  ac- 
cording to  Greville,  the  choice  fell  upon  Lord  Granby. 
But  he  seems  to  have  been  a  roi  faineant.  Lord  George 
Bentiuck  at  the  opening  of  next  session  took  his  seat 
below  the  gangway,  Disraeli  still  retaining  his  own  on 
the  front  Opposition  bench  ;  but  the  Opposition  was  in 
reality  **  acephalous  "  as  Greville  calls  it.  Throughout 
this  session  there  was  no  practical  chief.  But  Disraeli 
was  rapidly  showing  that  there  could  be  only  one.  On 
the  20th  August  he  made  a  speech  on  Foreign  Policy, 
which  even  Greville,  an  unwilling  witness,  allows  to 
have  been  a  '*  very  brilliant  one."  Ten  days  afterwards 
be  spoke  again,  on  the  '*  Labours  of  the  session,'  and  it 
was  this  speech  to  which  he  himself  always  attributed 
his  being  invested  with  the  leadership  after  the  death  of 
Lord  George  Beutinck.  This  took  place  in  September 
1848,  and  had  Lord  Granby  really   been  leader,  Lord 


70  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

George's  death  would  have  made  no  difference — would 
have  occasioned  no  necessity,  that  is,  for  choosing  a  new 
one.  Such  however,  was  its  consequence.  And  on 
January  1849  the  party  met  for  that  purpose.  Lord 
Granby  himself  was  one  of  the  first  to  propose  Disraeli. 
The  Duke  of  Newcastle,  the  Duke  of  Kichmond,  Mr. 
Miles,  and  Mr.  Bankes,  are  also  named  in  his  letter 
to  his  sister,  as  having  urged  his  qualifications  on 
Lord  Stanley.  Disraeli  himself  says  "  the  only  awk- 
ward thing  now  is  Stanley's  position  in  consequence  of 
his  first  rash  letter."  That  letter  may  be  conjectured  to 
have  been  the  one  which  he  wrote  when  applied  to  the 
year  before  on  the  resignation  of  Lord  G.  Bentinck. 
At  page  165  of  vol.  iii.  of  the  Cro/cer  Papers  is  to  be 
found  a  letter  from  Lord  George  Bentinck  to  Croker,  of 
the  date  of  March  2nd,  1848,  from  which  it  might  be 
inferred  that  Lord  Stanley  was  at  that  time  opposed  to 
the  pretensions  of  Mr.  Disraeli.  Lord  George,  after  a 
high  encomiuroi  on  Mr.  Disraeli's  oratory,  records  his 
conviction  that,  "in  spite  of  Lord  Stanley"  and  others, 
it  will  end  in  Disraeli  being  leader  of  the  party  before 
two  sessions  are  over.  The  prediction  was  fulfilled  in 
less  than  half  the  time.  And  Lord  Stanley  very  soon 
saw  that  he  was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place,  and 
for  the  remainder  of  his  life  never  failed  on  every 
occasion  to  do  justice  to  his  genius  and  his  character. 

In  1849,  then,  he  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Commons  as  the  acknowledged  Leader  of  the  Oppo- 
sition; and  now  began  his  great  work — the  recon- 
struction of  the  Conservative  Party.  The  following 
is  his  own  account  of  the  steps  which  he  took  for 
that  purpose.  After  the  General  Election  of  1847, 
the  number  of  supporters  on  whom  the  Leader  of  the 
Opposition  could  rely  hardly  exceeded  one  hundred  and 


SIB  BOBEBT  PEEL  AND  FBEE  TBADE.     71 

fifty.  On  his  motion  on  Irish  Kailways,  in  1848,  the 
great  trial  of  strength  for  the  session,  Lord  George 
Bentinck  only  carried  a  hundred  and  eighteen  members 
into  the  lobby  with  him.  But  there  were  still  more 
than  a  hundred  Peelites  who  belonged  to  the  landed 
interest,  and  who,  on  all  subjects  but  one,  were  still 
thorough -going  Conservatives.  To  accustom  them  to 
find  themselves  in  the  same  lobby  with  their  former 
associates  was  Disraeli's  first  object,  and  he  began  with 
a  motion  for  a  Select  Committee  to  inquire  into  the 
'*  Burdens  upon  Land/'  on  the  unequal  pressure  of 
taxation  on  the  agricultural  classes.  The  existence  of 
considerable  distress  among  the  farmers  was  admitted 
on  both  sides  of  the  House.  The  Peelites,  as  country 
gentlemen,  were  deeply  interested  in  obtaining  compen- 
sation for  their  tenantry.  Any  project  of  this  kind, 
undarkened  by  the  shadow  of  Protection,  they  were 
bound  to  support;  and  when  the  division  took  place 
it  justified  Mr.  Disraeli's  foresight,  as  it  gave  him  an 
increase  of  forty  votes  over  the  best  division  which  the 
Conservatives  had  to  show  since  the  dissolution.  The 
speech  which  he  made  upon  this  occasion  is  perhaps  the 
most  truly  eloquent  of  all  his  great  speeches  on  the 
subject.  Tt  breathes  what  are  rarely  found  together, 
genuine  feeling  combined  with  brilliant  rhetoric. 

The  agriculturists  [he  said]  have  not  forgotten  that  they  have  been 
spoken  of  in  terms  of  contempt  by  Ministers  of  State — ay,  even  by  a 
son  of  one  of  their  greatest  houses :  a  house  that  always  loves  the 
land,  and  that  the  land  still  loves.  They  have  not  forgotten  that 
they  have  been  held  up  to  public  odium  and  reprobation  b}-^  trium- 
phant demagogues.  They  have  not  forgotten  that  their  noble 
industry,  which  in  the  old  days  was  considered  the  invention  of  gods 
and  the  occupation  of  heroes,  has  been  stigmatised  and  denounced  as 
an  incubus  upon  English  enterprise.  They  have  not  forgotten  that 
even  the  very  empire  that  was  created  by  the  valour  and  the  devotion 


72  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELD. 

of  their  fathers  has  been  held  up  to  public  hatred,  as  a  cumbersome 
and  ensanguined  machinery,  only  devised  to  pamper  the  luxury  and 
feed  the  rapacity  of  our  territorial  houses. 

You  think  that  you  may  trust  their  proverbial  loyalty.  Trust 
their  loyalty,  but  do  not  abuse  it.  Their  conduct  to  you  has  exhibited 
no  hostile  feeling,  notwithstanding  the  political  changes  that  have 
abounded  of  late  years,  and  all  apparently  to  a  diminution  of  their 
powers.  They  have  inscribed  a  homely  sentence  on  their  rural  ban- 
ners ;  but  it  is  one  which,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  already  again  touching 
the  heart  and  convincing  the  reason  of  England— "  Live  and  Let  Live." 

Your  system  and  theirs  are  exactly  contrary.  They  invite  "  union." 
They  believe  that  national  prosperity  can  only  be  produced  by  the 
prosperity  of  all  classes.  You  prefer  to  remain  in  isolated  splendour 
and  solitary  magnificence.  But,  believe  me,  I  speak  not  as  your 
enemy,  when  I  say  that  it  will  be  an  exception  to  the  principles  which 
seem  hitherto  to  have  ruled  society,  if  you  can  succeed  in  maintaining 
the  success  at  which  you  aim  without  the  possession  of  that  perma- 
nence and  stability  which  the  territorial  principle  alone  can  afford. 
Although  you  may  for  a  moment  flourish  after  their  destruction — 
although  your  ports  may  be  filled  with  shipping,  your  factories 
smoke  on  every  plain,  and  your  forges  flame  in  every  city — I  see  no 
reason  why  you  should  form  an  exception  to  that  which  the  page  of 
history  has  mournfully  recorded  :  that  you,  too,  should  not  fade  like  the 
Tyrian  dye,  and  moulder  like  the  Venetian  palaces.  But  united  with 
the  land,  you  will  obtain  the  best  and  surest  foundation  upon  which 
to  build  your  enduring  welfare.  You  will  find  in  that  interest  a  coun- 
sellor in  all  your  troubles,  in  danger  your  undaunted  champion,  and 
in  adversity  your  steady  customer.  It  is  to  assist  in  producing  this 
result.  Sir,  that  I  am  about  to  place  these  resolutions  in  your  hands. 
I  wish  to  see  the  agriculture,  the  commerce,  and  the  manufactures  of 
England,  not  adversaries,  but  co-mates  and  partners,  and  rivals  only 
in  the  ardour  of  their  patriotism  and  in  the  activity  of  their  public 
spirit. 

In  the  following  year,  on  the  19th  of  February  1850,  he 
returned  to  the  charge  with  resolutions  recommending 
a  large  remission  of  local  taxation.  On  this  occasion  he 
enlisted  the  support  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  and,  on  a  division, 
the  numbers  were  273  to  252,  a  majority  of  only  21.  In 
1851,  the  agricultural  distress  being  acknowledged  in  the 
Queen's  Speech,  Mr.  Disraeli  on  the  IJth  of  February, 


SIB  nOBEET  FEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE,     73 

moved  that  Ministers  should  be  called  on  to  introduce 
some  remedial  measures  in  conformity  with  the  language 
which  they  had  advised  Her  Majesty  to  employ ;  and  on 
this  occasion  the  Ministerial  majority  sank  as  low  as 
fourteen — 267  members  following  Mr.  Disraeli's  banner, 
and  281  the  Government.  The  Opposition  strengtli 
had  now  risen  from  189  in  1849  to  267  in  1851.  Lord 
John  Russell  became  anxious  to  escape  from  a  position 
which  was  no  longer  either  necessary  to  the  public  or 
creditable  to  himself,  and  he  seized  the  opportunity 
presented  by  his  defeat  on  the  County  Franchise  ques- 
tion, to  place  his  resignation  in  Her  Majesty's  hands. 
The  Queen  sent  for  Lord  Derby,  who,  not  without  some 
slur,  as  it  was  thought,  upon  his  own  colleagues  in  both 
Houses,  declined  to  take  office,  and  the  Whigs  held  on 
for  another  session. 

But  Mr,  Disraeli  had  achieved  his  task.  He  had 
raised  the  Conservative  Party  from  the  dust,  and 
restored  its  energy,  its  self-respect,  and  its  status  in  the 
country  as  a  great  political  connection.  And  he  had 
done  this  under  disadvantages  such  as  no  other  states- 
man engaged  in  a  similar  undertaking  had  ever  experi- 
enced before.  Sir  Robert  Peel's  reconstruction  of  the 
party  after  1832  certainly  cannot  be  compared  to  it. 
Half  the  great  statesmen  whom  the  country  had  looked 
up  to  for  years  were  his  colleagues  or  confederates. 
The  Church,  disgusted  by  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of 
the  Whigs,  was  on  his  side  to  a  man.  Popular  distress 
resulting  in  Chartism,  also  told  against  the  Government. 
In  1848  every  one  of  these  advantages  was  on  the  other 
side.  The  experienced  Conservative  statesmen  whom 
Peel  had  trained  to  affairs  stood  sullenly  aloof;  a  large 
and  influential  section  of  the  Church  of  England  believed 
itself  represented  by  these  gentlemen.     The  agricultural 


74  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEACON SFIFLB, 

distress  which  undoubtedly  prevailed  at  that  time  made 
the  victorious  interests  of  the  country  still  more  jealous 
of  Lord  Derby.  In  the  teeth  of  these  difficulties, 
he  had  restored  to  the  shattered  and  dispirited  rem- 
nant which  still  called  itself  the  Conservative  Party, 
something  like  the  dimensions,  the  cohesion,  and  the 
dignity  of  a  regular  Opposition,  who  were  now  not 
unwilling  to  try  a  fall  with  their  opponents,  or  to 
take  the  judgment  of  the  country  on  their  respective 
merits. 

In  1850  and  1851  the  letters  to  Sarah  Disraeli  contain 
a  good  deal  of.social  matter  as  well  as  political,  that  is  of 
much  interest.  In  January  he  went  again  to  Belvoir, 
where  he  seems  to  have  witnessed,  for  the  first  time,  the 
spectacle  of  the  hunting-men  dining  in  their  redcoats. 
From  Belvoir  he  went  on  to  Biirghley,  which  he 
admired  very  much.  "  The  exterior  of  Burghley  is 
faultless,  so  vast,  and  so  fantastic,  and  in  such  line 
condition,  that  the  masonry  seems  but  of  yesterday. 
In  the  midst  of  a  vast  park,  ancient  timber  in  profa- 
fusion,  gigantic  oaks  of  the  days  of  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  and  an  extensive  lake.  The  plate  mar- 
vellous." By  the  end  of  March  he  was  at  Hughenden, 
where  some  hitch  seems  to  have  occurred  in  his  Par- 
liamentary position.  He  writes,  **  If  I  cannot  lead  the 
party  after  the  holidays,  I  had  better  retire  altogether." 
This  probably  refers  to  some  obscure  party  discussion, 
■which  is  now  forgotten,  though  no  doubt  men  were 
busy  at  work  trying  to  trip  him  up  during  the  whole 
three  years  which  preceded  1852.  In  May  we  find 
him  at  the  house  of  Sir  William  Jolliffe  near  Petersfield, 
**  a  beautiful  home,  and  a  still  more  beautiful  family 
of  all  ages  from  three  to  twenty,  and  all  good-look- 
ing." 


SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TBADE.     75 

Tn  September  1850  he  receives  two  immense  chests 
from  the  Duke  of  Portland,  containing  Lord  George 
Bentinck's  papers,  and  in  October  he  has  made  a  good 
start  with  the  Biography.  His  letters  are  dated  from 
Hugbenden,  and  tell  of  the  beautiful'  autumn,  and  the 
gorgeous  tints  of  the  beech-woods  which  girdled  his 
country  home. 

In  January  1851,  Lord  Stanley,  the  present  Lord 
Derby,  came  to  stay  w^ith  him  in  Buckinghamshire, 
and  found  it  very  charming  **  after  Lancashire." 
At  this  time,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Disraeli,  oddly  enough, 
kept  no  horses,  and  the  statesman  and  his  guest  had 
to  make  their  excursion  on  foot.  They  visited  Great 
Hampden,  Wycombe  Abbey,  Denner  Hill,  and  other 
places  of  interest,  and  returned  to  town  for  the 
meeting  of  Parliament  in  February.  In  a  letter  dated 
February  26th,  there  is  an  allusion  to  the  speech  of 
the  11th,  which  has  been  already  described,  coupled 
with  an  anecdote  of  Croker,  which  reminds  one  of 
ConingHhy,  **  Croker  met  me  and  nearly  embraced 
me.  I  hardly  recognised  him.  He  said  the  speech 
was  *  the  speech  of  a  statesmen,  and  the  reply  was 
the  reply  of  a  wit.'  How  very  singular,*'  adds  the 
writer.  After  the  portrait  of  Mr.  Bigby,  it  certainly 
was. 

The  Life  of  Lord  George  was  published  at  the  end 
of  December  1851,  and  independently  of  the  great 
interest  attaching  to  the  political  career  of  this  very 
singular  man,  the  work  contains  a  portrait  of  Sir 
Bobert  Peel  which  has  often  been  thought  the  painter's 
masterpiece,  and  a  chapter  on  the  Jews,  in  which  he 
unfolds  the  views  first  propounded  in  Coningshy  and 
Tailored  with  even  more  precision,  more  earnestness, 
and  greater  power  of  argument   than  he  places  in  the 


76  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAC0N8FIELD. 

mouth  of  Sidonia.     He  winds  up  the  character  of  Peel 
in  the  following  memorable  words : — 

One  cannot  say  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  notwithstanding  his  unrivalled 
powers  of  despatching  affairs,  that  he  was  the  greatest  minister  that 
this  country  ever  procfuced,  because,  twice  placed  at  the  helm,  and 
on  the  second  occasion  with  the  Court  and  the  Parliament  equally 
devoted  to  him,  he  never  could  maintain  himself  in  power.  Nor, 
notwithstanding  his  consummate  parliamentary  tactics,  can  he  be 
described  as  the  greatest  party  leader  that  ever  flourished  among  us, 
for  he  contrived  to  destroy  the  most  compact,  powerful,  and  devoted 
party  that  ever  followed  a  British  statesman.  Certainly,  notwith- 
standing his  great  sway  in  debate,  we  cannot  recognize  him  as  our 
greatest  orator,  for  in  many  of  the  supreme  requisites  of  oratory  ho 
was  singularly  deficient.  But  what  he  really  was,  and  what  posterity 
will  acknowledge  him  to  have  been,  is  the  greatest  Member  of  Parlia- 
ment that  ever  lived. 

He  anticipates  the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  or  rather, 
to  use  his  own  words,  that  they  will  accept  the  whole 
of  their  religion  instead  of  only  the  half  of  it,  as  they 
gradually  grow  more  familiar  with  the  true  history  and 
character  of  the  New  Testament.  And  he  lays  great 
stress  on  the  fact  that  the  non-Christian  Jews  at  the 
present  day  are  for  the  most  part  descendants  of  the 
earlier  exiles,  whose  ancestors  never  heard  of  Christ  till 
centuries  after  the  crucifixion,  when  His  religion  ap- 
proached them  in  the  guise  of  a  persecution.  "  It  is 
improbable,'*  he  thinks,  *'  that  any  descendants  of  the 
Jews  of  Palestine  exist  who  disbelieve  in  Christ."  His 
appeal  to  men  of  his  own  race  is  an  example  in  his  best 
style  : — 

Perhaps,  too,  in  this  enlightened  age,  as  his  mind  expands,  and  he 
takes  a  comprehensive  view  of  this  period  of  progress,  the  pupil  of 
Moses  may  ask  himself  whether  all  the  princes  of  the  house  of  David 
have  done  so  much  for  the  Jews  as  that  Prince  who  was  crucified  on 
Calvary?  Had  it  not  been  for  Him,  the  Jews  would  have  been  com- 
paratively unknown,  or  known  only  as  a  high  Oriental  caste  which 
had  lost  its  country.     Has  not  He  made  then-  history  the  most  famous 


SIB  BOBEBT  PEEL  AND  FBEE  TBADE.     77 

in  the  world  ?  Has  not  He  hung  up  their  laws  in  every  temple  ?  Has 
not  He  vindicated  all  their  wrongs  ?  Has  not  he  avenged  the  victory 
of  Titus  and  conquered  the  Caesars  ?  What  successes  did  thej''  anti- 
cipate from  their  Messiah  ?  The  wildest  dreams  of  their  rabbis  havo 
been  far  exceeded.  Has  not  Jesus  conquered  Europe  and  changed 
its  name  into  Christendom  ?  All  countries  that  refuse  the 
Cross  wither,  while  the  whole  of  the  New  World  is  devoted  to  the 
Semitic  principle  and  its  most  glorious  offspring  the  Jewish  faith  ;  and 
the  time  will  come  when  the  vast  communities  and  countless  myriads 
of  America  and  Australia,  looking  upon  Europe  as  Europe  now  looks 
upon  Greece,  and  wondering  how  so  small  a  space  could  have  achieved 
such  great  deeds,  will  still  find  music  in  the  songs  of  Sion  and  solace 
in  the  parables  of  Galilee. 

Disraeli  did  not  think  that  Lord  George  Bentinck 
would  have  succeeded  as  a  party  leader.  Though  with- 
out vanity,  he  was  remarkable  for  obstinacy.  His 
mind,  be  said,  had  little  flexibility.  He  was  no  orator, 
and  his  early  education  had  not  been  of  a  kind  to 
qualify  him  for  Parliamentary  distinction.  His  clear 
head,  his  strong  memory,  his  wonderful  powers  of  acqui- 
sition, and  his  undaunted  courage  and  perseverance, 
made  him  a  very  useful  leader  of  the  Protectionists 
in  the  time  of  their  trials,  but  would  not  have  been 
sufficient  for  the  permanent  leadership  of  a  party. 

In  1852  occurred  the  famous  quarrel  between  Lord 
John  Russell  and  Lord  Palmerston  on  the  subject  of  the 
Cotip  d'e/at,  followed  by  the  retirement  of  the  latter  from 
the  Foreign  Office.  Lord  Palmerston  did  not  mince  mat- 
ters. He  made  no  secret  of  his  intention  to  "  have  his 
tit-for-tat  with  John  Russell " — and  an  opportunity 
occurring  on  the  Militia  Bill,  introduced  by  Government, 
he  put  him  in  a  minority  and  out  of  office  at  the  same 
time.  Now  comes  the  first  Derby  Ministry,  and  a  very 
memorable  chapter  in  Mr.  Disraeli's  life.  The  change 
of  Government  took  place  at  the  end  of  February,  and 
the  new  arrangements  were  very  speedily   completed. 


78  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

Mr.  Disraeli  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
and  Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons.  His  colleagues 
in  the  lower  House  were,  with  one  or  two  exceptions, 
men  whom  he  had  silently  singled  out,  during  the  past 
four  or  five  years,  as  well  qualified  for  office  ;  nor  was 
his  knowledge  of  human  nature  at  fault.  In  Mr.  Henley 
and  Sir  John  Pnkington  especially  he  found  two  as 
able  administrators  as  could  be  found  among  the 
veterans  of  the  Opposition.  It  was  unfortunate  that 
Lord  Derby  was  comparatively  unacquainted  with  the 
personnel  of  his  party  in  the  lower  House.  It  is  said 
that  of  some  of  the  gentlemen  recommended  by  the 
leader  of  that  assembly  he  had  never  even  heard  the 
names.  Eleven  of  them  were  sworn  in  Privy  Councillors 
on  the  same  day.  And  it  was  owing  to  this  circumstance 
that  Lord  Derby  always  seemed  to  think  it  impossible 
that  he  could  carry  on  a  Government  without  the  help 
of  Mr.  Gladstone  or  Lord  Palmerslon.  His  followers 
were  justly  mortified,  as  may  be  read  in  the  Memoirs  of 
Lord  Malmesbury,  who  now  becomes  our  most  trust- 
worthy authority  for  the  Parlinmentary  history  of  the 
period.  The  new  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  however, 
had  no  sifch  misgivings.  He  was  in  the  highest  spirits, 
and  declared  that  *'  he  felt  like  a  girl  going  to  her  first 
ball."    The  ne\v  Ministry  was  constituted  as  follows: — 

First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  Earl  of  Derby. 

Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  St.  Leonards. 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Disraeli. 

President  of  Council,  Earl  of  Lonsdale. 

Privy  Seal,  Marquis  of  Salisbury. 

Foreign  Secretary,  Earl  of  Malmesbury. 

Home  Secretary,  Mr.  Spencer  Walpole. 

First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  The  Duke  of  North- 
umberland. 

f0 


SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE,     79 

Colonial  Secretary,  Sir  John  Pakington. 
President  of  Board  of  Customs,  Mr.  Herries. 
First  Commissioner  of  Works,  Lord  John  Manners. 

These  were  the  Cabinet.  Mr.  Henley  was  President 
of  the  Board  of  Control ;  and  the  Law  Officers  of  the 
Crown  were  Sir  Frederick  Thesiger  and  Sir  Fitzroy 
Kelly. 

The  new  Ministry  ought  not  to  have  been  the  object 
of  any  special  hostility.  They  had  not  taken  office  till 
it  was  forced  upon  them.  The  previous  Administration 
was  not  turned  out ;  it  fell  to  pieces  of  its  own  accord. 
The  change  was  not  due  to  any  personal  intervention  of 
the  Sovereign,  as  in  1834,  or  to  any  stroke  of  party 
vengeance,  as  in  1846.  The  Ministry  of  Lord  John 
Russell  was  too  weak  to  carry  on  the  Government,  and 
nobody  was  better  aware  of  the  fact  than  Lord  John 
Russell  himself.  He  was  even  anxious  to  escape  from 
his  position,  yet  no  sooner  were  the  leaders  of  the  Oppo- 
sition seated  on  the  Treasury  Bench  than  they  were 
assailed  by  a  fire  of  invective  from  Whigs,  Peelites,  and 
Radicals,  as  if  they  had  been  guilty  of  some  gross  breach 
of  Parliamentary  morality.  Lord  Derby,  in  1851,  had 
held  out  the  olive  branch  to  Mr.  Gladstone.  He  had, 
with  Mr.  Disraeli's  consent  and  approbation,  offered  the 
lead  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  Lord  Palmerston. 
Neither  would  join  him,  tliough  neither  could  allege  any 
difference  of  principle  between  himself  and  the  new 
Prime  Minister,  except  on  the  one  question  of  the  Corn 
Laws  ;  and  the  possibility  of  these  being  revived  by  two 
such  men  as  Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli  was  too 
remote  to  have  influenced  the  minds  of  any  practical 
man.  Their  union  with  the  Ministry  would  have 
brought  the    Conservatives   the    strength    which    they 


80  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELB. 

required.  But  each,  in  fact,  was  playing  for  his  own 
hand;  and  they  judged/  perhaps  rightly,  that  the 
course  of  events  was  likely  to  bring  the  ball  to  their  feet 
under  more  favourable  circumstances  than  then  pre- 
sented themselves.  But  this  was  no  excuse  for  the 
flood  of  vituperation  poured  upon  the  heads  of  the  new 
Government  by  the  Opposition  and  their  organs  in  the 
press;  and  when  remarks  are  made  on  the  bitterness  of 
Disraeli's  satire,  and  the  cutting  irony  in  which  he  spoke 
of  some  at  least  of  the  Peelite  leaders,  we  should  do  well 
to  remember  his  provocation.  Of  the  malignity  of 
■which  he  himself  was  the  object,  it  is  difficult  to  speak, 
even  at  this  distance  of  time,  with  common  patience  or 
forbearance.  If  it  is  said  that  he  brought  it  on  his 
own  head  by  his  treatment  of  Sir  Robert  Peel ;  the 
answer  is  that  it  is  only  among  savages  that  the  rights 
of  revenge  are  held  to  be  inexhaustible,  and  that  in  all 
civilised  morality  there  is^  so  to' speak,  a  statute  of  limi- 
tations, under  which  the  lex  talionis  expires  after  a  cer- 
tain time.  Even  with  Juno's  unrelenting  hate  Jupiter 
interferes  at  Inst  The  more  than  feminine  fury  of  the 
Peelites  was  alike  insensible  to  justice  and  incapable  of 
satiety;  and  knowing  the  splendid  position  which  Lord 
Beaconsfield  afterwards  attained,  and  the  love,  honour, 
and  troops  of  friends  which  attended  him  to  his  grave, 
it  is  difficult  to  note  the  language  in  which  he  was 
spoken  of  five  and  thirty  years  ago,  and  believe  that  we 
are  reading  of  the  same  man,  the  same  English  people, 
and  the  same  century. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  session  of  1852, 
the  Government  was  thought  to  have  dotre  well. 
They  carried  a  Militia  Bill  which  gave  general  satis- 
faction, and  Mr.  Disraeli  astonished  the  world  by 
the  capacity  which  he  displayed  as  Finance  Minister. 


SIB  BOBEBT  PEEL  AND  FBEE  TBADE.     81 

On  the  30th  of  April  he  introduced  his  first 
Budget,  which,  says  Greville,  "  was  a  great  per- 
formance, very  able,  and  received  with  great  applause 
in  the  House."  The  frauk  acceptance  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  Free  Trade  which  it  contained  gave  offence 
to  some  of  his  supporters,  and  was  denounced  by  the 
Opposition  as  an  unparalleled  act  of  tergiversation. 
But  no  one  w^io  had  given  any  intelligent  consideration 
to  his  speeches  during  the  previous  twenty  years  had 
any  right  to  be  surprised  or  shocked.  He  had  always 
been  in  favour  of  Free  Trade  conducted  upon  equitable 
principles,  which  the  principles  of  the  League  were  not. 
He  had  quite  recently  declared  that  the  country  having 
deliberately  endorsed  the  policy  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the 
farmers^  friends  must  look  for  compensation  rather  than 
restitution."^  This  was  all  he  said  in  the  Budget.  It 
was  quite  open  to  him  to  recognise  the  beneficial  eff'ects 
of  Sir  Robert  PeeFs  policy,  without  either  condoning 
the  means  by  which  it  had  been  carried  out,  or  ignoring 
the  injustice  which  it  had  inflicted  on  a  large  and  most 
important  interest.  Mr.  Disraeli  said  that  this  might 
be  remedied  without  flinging  back  the  injustice  upon 
the  shoulders  of  any  other  class.  And  the  local 
taxation  reformers  of  1888,  including  men  of  all  parties 
in  their  ranks,  are  only  saying  the  same  thing. 

However,  Mr,  Disraeli  had  made  himself  a  great 
many  enemies  among  the  Peel'ites,  who  had  great 
Jiterary  talent  at  their  command ;  and  he  also  had  the 
Press  against  him.  By  far  the  two  most  influential 
daily  papers  of  that  date  were  the  Times  and  the 
Morning  Chronicle ^  of  which  the  one  was  anti -Con- 
servative and  the  other  Peelite  to  the  core.     The  Morn' 

*  Speech  in  House  of  Commons,  March  8,  1849. 

6 


82  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAG0N8FIELD. 

ing  Post  and  the  Globe  were  Palmerstoniaii,  and  the 
only  regular  Conservative  daily  which  then  existed  was 
the  Morning  Herald,  hardly  less  unfriendly  to  Mr. 
Disraeli  than  any  of  the  other  four.  Among  them  he 
had  no  chance  ;  and  it  is  a  wonderful  tribute  to  his 
genius  that  with  these  formidable  odds  against  him  the 
battle  should  have  been  doubtful  for  a  moment,  and  that 
even  from  a  class  of  adversaries  who  rarely  err  on  the 
side  of  magnanimity  he  should  have  extorted,  in  spite 
of  themselves,  a  reluctant  eulogy. 

In  July  1852  Parliament  was  dissolved,  and  a  final 
appeal  was  made  to  the  country  to  decide  whether  it 
would  continue  "  to  fight  hostile  tariffs  with  free 
imports,"  or  pronounce  for  what  is  known  as  Reciprocity. 
The  Conservative  candidates  won  a  great  many  seats — 
some  because  they  were  Protectionists,  others  because  they 
were  Conservatives,  and  because  the  public  began  to  be 
afraid  of  Lord  John  Russell  and  his  new  Reform  Bill : 
but  they  did  not  win  enough,  as  the  sequel  will  show ;  and 
they  had  to  deal  with  old  Parliamentary  hands  who 
knew  well  how  to  strike  when  the  iron  was  hot.  They 
perceived  that  if  the  Chancellor  could  be  forced  to  make 
his  financial  statement  before  the  expiration  of  the 
year,  it  would  be  morally  impossible  for  him  not  to 
propose  something  for  the  farmers,  which,  in  all  proba- 
bility, they  would  be  able  to  use  against  him.  What 
they  foresaw  came  to  pass. 

Mr.  Disraeli  always  regretted  that  his  Party  had  been 
obliged  to  take  office  at  the  particular  moment  when 
they  did.  In  another  year  the  agricultural  distress  which 
had  prompted  his  great  speeches  in  1849,  1850,  and  1851, 
would  have  passed  away.  Could  the  dissolution  of 
Parliament  have  been  postponed  for  another  nine  months, 
it  would  have  been  unnecessary  to  say  anything  about 


SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE.      83 

it,  and  many  Conservative  Free  Traders  would  have 
given  their  votes  for  Lord  Derby.  Even  could  the  finan- 
cial statement  have  been  deferred  to  its  usual  period, 
the  month  of  April  1853,  he  used  to  say  that  a  Budget 
might  have  been  framed  which  the  House  of  Commons 
would  have  accepted.  But  the  Opposition  saw  this  as 
well  as  he  did,  and  forced  his  hand.  They  professed 
the  most  violent  alarm  lest  the  Corn  Laws  were  about 
to  be  revived.  The  Anti-Corn  Law  League  resumed 
its  sittings,  and  assumed  something  of  the  functions 
and  importance  of  a  vigilance  committee.  The  Govern- 
ment were  compelled  to  call  Parliament  together  in 
November.  Resolutions  re-affirming  the  principles  of 
Free  Trade  were  flung  in  the  face  of  the  Ministry, 
and  it  became  clear  to  Mr.  Disraeli  that  he  had  better 
declare  his  financial  policy  and  take  his  chance,  than 
provoke  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence,  which  would 
almost  certainly  have  been  carried  against  him,  or 
lost  by  so  small  a  majority  as  to  have  destroyed  the 
moral  influence  of  the  Government. 

Accordingly,  on  the  3rd  of  December  1852,  he  pro- 
duced the  Budget,  which  gave  the  Opposition  their 
expected  opportunity.  Its  chief  features  were — the 
remission  of  half  the  malt  tax;  the  gradual  remission 
of  half  the  tea  duty  ;  the  assessment  of  income  tax  on 
one  third  of  the  farmer's  rental  instead  of  one  half;  the 
extension  of  income  tax  to  incomes  of  dSlOO  a  year  of 
precarious  income,  and  to  £50  a  year  of  permanent 
income;  the  extension  of  the  house  tax  to  houses  of 
£10  a  year  rateable  value,  and  an  increase  of  the  assess- 
ment to  Is.  fid.  in  the  pound  on  houses,  and  Is.  on  shops, 
the  whole  produce  being  calculated  at  iGl, 723,000. 

Being  compelled  to  make  his  statement  in  December, 
instead  of  in  the  following  April,  the  reduction  of  the 

6  * 


84  LIFE  OF  LORD  BBA00N8FIELD. 

malt  tax  and  the  alteration  in  the  assessment  of  the  in- 
come tax  on  agricultural  incomes  were  forced  upon  him, 
and  to  compensate  for  these  remissions  he  was  com- 
pelled to  resort  to  the  unpopular  provisions  above  men- 
tioned, the  extension,  namely,  of  the  house  tax  and  the 
income  tax. 

The  speech  in  which  Mr.  Disraeli  replied  to  his  critics 
was  delivered  on  the  16th  of  December,  and,  together 
with  Mr.  Gladstone's  answer  to  it,  will  long  be  memo- 
rable. He  was  convinced  to  the  last,  and  probably 
with  justice,  that  the  coalition  was  aimed  against  him- 
self, and  he  used  to  compare  his  position  in  1852  with 
that  of  Lord  Shelburne  in  1783.  It  was  the  recollec- 
tion, indeed,  of  that  historic  crisis  which  inspired  his 
famous  words  :  "  This  I  know,  that  England  does  not 
love  coalitions,"  and  encouraged  him,  perhaps,  to  utter  the 
prediction  which  was  not  long  in  being  fulfilled.  But 
he  had  in  the  course  of  his  speech  referred  to  Sir  James 
Graham  in  terms  which  seem  to  have  been  misun- 
derstood on  the  Opposition  benches,  and  afforded  Mr. 
Gladstone  an  opportunity  of  delivering  an  indignant 
rejoinder,  which  had  a  great  eflect  upon  the  House.  It 
was  thought  that  but  for  this,  Ministers  might  have 
secured  a  small  majority.  As  it  was,  the  Coalition 
counted  305  against  the  Ministerial  286,  and  Lord 
Derby  immediately  resigned.  He  was  succeeded,  after  a 
period  of  complicated  negotiations,  by  Lord  Aberdeen. 

The  party,  however,  had  scarcely  expected  to  retain 
office.  They  had  considerably  increased  their  number 
by  the  general  election.  They  now  reckoned  nearly 
three  hundred  bayonets.  They  had  held  office  with 
credit,  had  exhibited  great  administrative  abilities,  and 
liad  taught  the  public  to  respect  them.  They  were  no 
longer  a  despised  remnant,  afraid  to  meet  their  enemy  in 


SIB  ROBERT  PEEL  AND  FREE  TRADE.      85 

the  gate.  They  were  a  powerful  and  well-disciplined 
party,  and  the  proper  functions  of  an  Opposition,  which 
had  been  too  long  in  abeyance  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, were  once  more  re-established. 

All  Lord  Derby's  doubts  had  now  vanished,  and  hence- 
forth he  fully  justified  the  saying  of  Mr.  Disraeli,  that 
**  an  aristocracy  hesitates  before  it  yields  its  confidence, 
but  never  does  so  grudgingly.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, the  social  feeling  and  the  principle  of  honour 
which  governs  gentlemen  mingle  in  political  connec- 
tions." Lord  Derby  gave  his  entire  and  cordial  con- 
fidence to  his  able  lieutenant  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  the  Derby-Disraeli  connection  remained  intact 
until  the  hour  of  Lord  Derby's  death. 


86  LIFE  OF  LOBB  BEACONSFIELB. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ME.   DISEAELI   AND   LOED   DEEBY. 

1862-1868. 

The  Press  newspaper — Funeral  oration  over  the  Duke  of  "WellingtoD 
— Divisions  in  the  Cabinet — Mr.  Disraeli's  irony  at  its  expense — 
Eefusal  of  Lord  Derby  to  take  office — Tactics  of  the  Conser- 
vative party  in  Opposition — The  China  debate — Defeat  of  the 
Palmerston  Government — The  second  Derby  Administration — 
The  Ellenborough  despatch — The  Eeform  Bill — Resignation  of 
Ministers — The  Conservatives  in  Opposition — Earl  Russell's 
foreign  policy —  Church  and  Queen — Mr.  Disraeli's  financial 
speeches — The  career  and  defeat  of  Earl  Russell's  Government — 
The  Reform  Bills — Mr.  Disraeli  leader  of  the  party. 

Such  was  the  position  of  Mr.  Disraeli  and  his  party 
when  they  resumed  their  seats  on  the  Opposition 
benches  in  January  1853.  And  Mr.  Disraeli  now  made 
it  the  business  of  his  life  to  expose  the  hollowness  of 
the  foundation  on  which  the  Coalition  rested.  His  prin- 
cipal speeches  in  Parliament  were  all  directed  to  this 
end,  and  in  the  summer  of  1853  he  established  for  the 
same  purpose  the  Press  newspaper. 

The  Pt^ess  was  a  weekly  newspaper  on  the  model  of 
the  A/fti- Jacobin,  and  designed  to  write  down  the  ob- 
noxious Coalition.  The  first  number  appeared  in  the 
summer  of  1853,   and  it  remained  under  the  direction 


MB.  DISRAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY.         87 

of  Mr.  Disraeli  till  1858,  when  it  was  sold  to  Mr. 
Newdegate.  When  I  first  knew  anything  of  the  Press 
it  was  edited  by  Mr.  Samuel  Lucas,  for  many  years 
connected  with  the  literary  department  of  the  Times^ 
assisted  by  Mr.  Shirley  Brooks  as  the  writer  of  squibs 
and  verses,  and  by  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  and  the  pre- 
sent Lord  Derby  as  leader  writers.  Mr.  Disraeli  wrote 
the  first  leading  article  in  the  first  number,  in  which 
the  head  of  the  Coalition  is  styled  **  an  austere  in- 
triguer,''  and  the  then  Lord  Stanley  continued  to 
write  pretty  regularly.  Mr.  Disraeli's  most  confiden- 
tial servant,  however,  was  Mr.  D.  T.  Coulton,  the 
founder  of  the  Brifatifna  newspaper,  and  well  known  at 
that  time  as  the  author  of  a  very  able  article  on  Junius 
in  the  Quarterhj  Review.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  a  very  high 
opinion  of  Mr.  Coulton,  who  died  in  1857,  at  the  early 
age  of  forty-six,  and  every  Friday  night,  while  Parliament 
was  sitting,  used  to  prime  him  for  the  next  daj's  leader 
with  all  the  newest  arguments  and  information.  Mr. 
Coulton  used  to  return  to  the  office  in  the  Strand  with 
a  mass  of  notes,  which  he  speedily  reduced  into  an  article, 
remarkable,  generally  speaking,  for  point,  precision,  and 
that  peculiar  weight,  more  easily  understood  than  de- 
scribed, which  marks  the  combination  of  literary  ability 
and  special  knowledge.  The  Pt-ess  was  much  read  at 
the  time,  and  is  often  referred  to  by  Lord  Malmesbury ; 
but  it  never  had  a  very  large  circulation,  and  was  chiefly 
useful  as  showing  that  all  the  wit,  brains,  and  literary 
skill  of  London  journalism  were  not  monopolised  by  the 
Liberals. 

In  September  1852,  while  the  Conservative  Govern- 
ment was  still  in  office,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  died, 
and  nobody  remained  behind  to  represent  the  old  school 
of  statesmen,  who  had  been  trained  in  the  Revolutionary 


88  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

war,  and  possessed  that  influence  with  the  European 
Courts  which  England  had  justly  acquired  by  the  sacri- 
fices made  on  their  behalf.  Both  Lord  Aberdeen  and 
Lord  Palmerston  began  their  political  life  early  in  the 
century.  But  neither  had  that  personal  acquaintance 
with  the  sovereigns  of  the  Continent  possessed  by  men  like 
Wellington  and  Castlereagh.  The  death  of  the  former  re- 
moved one  of  the  last  pillars  of  the  old  system  as  settled 
at  the  Congress  of  Vienna;  and  the  effect  of  it  was 
soon  seen  in  the  attitude  of  Russia  towards  Turkey. 
It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Mr.  Disraeli  to  pronounce  the 
funeral  oration  over  the  great  Duke  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  he  was  unlucky  enough  to  introduce  into 
his  speech  a  passage  on  the  Duke's  military  character 
containing  a  quotation  from  Claudian,  which  he  had 
read  many  years  before  in  an  article  on  Marshal  St. 
Cyr,  written  by  M.  Thiers  for  the  Revue  Triinestre  in 
1829.  He  had  once  pointed  it  out  to  George  Smythe, 
who  quoted  it  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  of  July  4th, 
1848.  And  it  is  needless  to  say  how  his. enemies  gloated 
over  the  discovery.  The  Times  argued  in  his  defence 
that  he  had  copied  the  passage  into  his  common-place 
book,  and  had  forgotten  whence  it  came. 

But  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  soon  gave 
the  world  more  important  things  to  think  about  than 
a  quotation  from  Claudian.  The  Crimean  War  was  the 
direct  result  of  it,  and  the  Coalition  Ministry  were,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Disraeli,  the  efficient  cause.  It  was,  so  he 
urged,  the  natural  consequence  of  a  divided  Cabinet  and 
di&tracted  counsels,  and  they  were  now  reaping  the  benefit 
of  having  installed  a  Government  in  office  which  had 
no  principle  or  sentiment  in  common,  but  hatred  of  a 
particular  individual.  The  Peelites  and  the  Radicals 
held   back   Lord   Palmerston.      Lord   Palmerston  and 


MB.  DISIUELI  AND  LORD  DERBY,  89 

Lord  John  Eussell  dragged  forward  Lord  Aberdeen.  The 
result  was  a  complete  deadlock,  almost  equal  to  the  famous^^ 
one  in  the  Critic,  and  Russia  of  course  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity and  flew  at  the  throat  of  her  victim.  Either  the 
peace  party  or  the  war  party  might  have  made  terms  with 
Russia,  but  a  Government  which  alternated  between  the 
two  policies,  to-day  under  the  influence  of  one,  to- 
morrow under  the  influence  of  the  other,  was  simply 
impotent,  and  the  Sebastopol  winter  was  the  con- 
sequence. 

Mr.  Disraeli,  however,  never  sought  to  hamper  or 
impede  the  Government.  He  set  the  example  of  giving 
them  a  patriotic  support  both  through  the  trying  time 
which  preceded  the  declaration  of  war,  and  after  hos- 
tilities had  commenced.  But  soon  after  the  Government 
was  formed,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  saying  what  he 
thought  upon  the  subject  without  exposing  himself 
to  any  charge  of  factious  opposition,  ;  A  speech  which 
he  delivered  on  our  relations  with  France,  on  the 
18th  of  February  1853,  may  be  considered  to  be 
one  of  his  most  brilliant  performances.  The  polished 
irony,  the  scornful  satire,  and  the  genuine  humour  with 
which  again  and  again  he  presses  home  this  main 
question:  What  is  the  foreign  policy  of  this  hetero- 
geneous Cabinet,  of  which  the  members  only  a  year  or 
two^  ago  were  iabusing  each  other  like  pickpockets  ? 
are  blended  together  with  the  highest  oratorical  art. 
The  Prijue  Minister  was  Lord  Aberdeen,  the  Foreign 
Secretary  was  Lord  John  Russell,  the  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty  was  Sir  James  Graham,  and  the  Home 
Secretary  was  Lord  Palmerston.  How  had  they  de- 
scribed each  other  and  each  other's  principles  in  the  great 
debate  of  1850?  On  hearing  the -Government  pro- 
gramme, says  Mr.  Disraeli,  in  which   it  was  stated  that 


90  LIFE  OF  LOED  BEACONSFIELD. 

our  foreign  policy  would  be  the  same  as  it  had  been 
for  the  last  thirty  years — 

I  could  not  forget  that  the  principles  of  the  foreign  policy  then  (i.e. 
1850)  pursued,  and  which  has  been  pursued  for  years  by  the  Govern- 
ment presided  over  by  the  noble  Lord  the  Member  for  London,  had 
been  described  as  unbecoming  to  the  dignity  of  England  and  perilous 
to  the  peace  of  Europe.  I  could  not  but  remember  that  this  was  the 
language  used  by  one  of  his  colleagues  in  this  Coalition  Ministry.  I 
could  not  but  recollect  that  Lord  Aberdeen  himself,  with  reference  to 
the  then  foreign  policy  and  the  principles  on  which  it  was  conducted, 
had  used  an  epithet  rarely  admitted  into  parliamentary  debate,  for  he 
stigmatised  them  as  "  abominable."  I  could  not  but  recollect,  also, 
that  the  great  indictment  of  the  foreign  policy  of  the  then  Govern- 
ment was  opened  in  this  House,  with  elaborate  care  and  vehement 
invective,  by  the  honourable  baronet  now  First  Lord  of  the  Admi- 
ralty. 

I  will  not  be  deterred  from  putting  the  question  I  am  about  to  ask. 
I  say  we  have  a  right  to  ask  Ministers  upon  what  principle  our  foreign 
policy  is  to  be  conducted.  Is  their  system  to  be  one  of  "liberal 
energy  "or  of  "antiquated  imbecility"?  When  the  noble  Viscount 
opposite  (Lord  Palmerston),  who  was  then  Foi'eign  Secretary,  was 
vindicating  himself  from  attacks,  he  took  credit  for  the  liberal  energy 
of  his  policy,  and  described  the  principles  recommended  by  his  present 
chief  as  a  system  of  "antiquated  imbecility." 

The  sarcasm  which  follows  at  the  expense  of  *'  All 
the  Talents,"  was  really  not  unjustifiable.  It  expresses, 
in  fact,  the  sober  and  prosaic  truth  that  the  veterans 
of  the  Peel  party  and  the  veterans  of  the  Russell  party, 
supposed  to  be  the  only  men  capable  of  carrying  on 
the  Government,  were  already  beginning  that  extraordi- 
nary series  of  blunders  which  led  to  the  Crimean  war. 

The  present  Government  tell  us  that  they  have  no  principles — at 
least  not  at  present.  Some  people  are  uncharitable  enough  to  sup- 
pose that  they  have  not  got  a  Party ;  but,  in  Heaven's  name,  why  are 
they  Ministers  if  they  have  not  got  discretion  ?  That  is  the  great 
quality  on  which  I  had  thought  this  Cabinet  was  established.  Vast 
experience,  administrMive  adroitness — safe  men,  who  never  would 
blunder — men  who  might  not  only  take  the  Government  without  a 
principle  and  without  a  Party,  but  to  whom  the  country  ought  to  be 


ME.  DISRAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY,         91 

grateful  for  taking  it  under  such  circumstances  ;  yet  at  the  very  first 
outset,  we  find  one  of  the  most  expei'ienced  of  these  eminent  states- 
men acting  in  the  teeth  of  tlie  declarations  of  the  noble  lord  opposite, 
and  of  Lord  Grey,  made  in  1852,  and  holding  up  to  public  scorn  and 
indignation  the  ruler  and  the  people,  a  good  and  cordial  understanding 
with  whom  is  one  of  the  cardinal  points  of  all  sound  statesmau- 
ship. 

Events  justified  Mr.  Disraeli's  words.  Two  years 
afterwards  the  Coalition  Ministry  was  overwhelmed  by  a 
storm  of  public  indignation.  But  Lord  Derby,  though 
with  the  best  intentions,  unhappily  did  not  seize  the  op- 
portunity which  was  offered  to  him,  and,  to  the  life-long 
regret  of  Mr.  Disraeli,  declined  to  form  another  Govern- 
ment. He  had  everything  in  his  favour.  The  Free 
Trade  controversy  was  over,  the  Keform  controversy  was 
dormant.  The  Conservatives  would  have  come  into 
office  unhampered  by  pledges  of  any  kind.  The  weight 
of  Protection  had  turned  the  scales  against  them  in 
1852,  but  that  was  now  thrown  off.  AH  the  nation 
wanted  was  a  strong  Government,  and  a  general  elec- 
tion would,  in  the  tlien  temper  of  the  country,  have 
been  certain  to  yield  a  Conservative  ma,jority.  But 
the  chance  was  lost  and  never  came  again.  In  1858 
and  in  1866  a  different  class  of  questions  had  arisen, 
as  embarrassing  to  the  Conservatives  as  Protection  ; 
and  even  in  1874,  though  a  change  of  Government 
was  desired,  there  was  not  the  same  opportunity  for 
distinction,  and  for  responding  to  a  great  national 
demand,  as  there  was  in  1855.  Lord  Palmerston 
stepped  in,  assumed  the  responsibilities  which  Lord 
Derby  shrank  from  undertaking,  and  had  the  country 
with  him  for  his  life. 

All  this  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  Mr,  Disraeli,  who 
saw  the  cup  dashed  from  his  lips,  and  the  legitimate  re- 
wards of  public  life  snatched  away  from  his  grasp,  when  in 


P2  LIFE  OF  LOIW  BEACONSFIELD. 

imagination  it  had  almost  closed  on  them.  The  party, 
if  we  are  to  believe  Lord  Malmesbury,  was  as  angry  as 
himself.  And  both  leaders  and  followers  entered  on  a 
passage  of  their  history  which  is  not  particularly  credit- 
able to  either.  They  felt  that  they  had  lost  a  chance 
which  would  not  present  itself  again.  The  party  began  to 
lose  heart,  to  become  garrulous  and  mutinous,  and,  as 
they  were  anxious  to  vent  their  spleen  upon  somebody, 
to  vent  it  on  their  leader  in  the  Commons.  They  had 
steadily  kept  aloof  from  any  co-operation  with  the 
Radicals,  though  plenty  of  opportunities  occurred.  But 
now  they  became  hopeless  and  demoralised,  and  disposed 
even  to  be  factious.  Mr.  Disraeli  was  driven  into  a 
method  of  opposition  which  will  not  bear  very  close  in- 
vestigation. The  excuse  is  that  it  was  necessary  to  do 
something  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the  party.  The 
tactics  for  which  he  has  been  blamed  often  had  their 
origin  in  this  necessity,  compelling  him  at  times  to  fight 
battles  without  profit,  and  to  take  office  without  power, 
solely  for  the  sake  of  stimulating  the  energies,  and  re- 
viving the  confidence  of  his  followers.  Every  general 
knows  what  it  is  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  dispirited  army, 
in  the  face  of  a  superior  force,  weary  of  inaction,  doubt- 
ful of  the  ability  of  its  leaders,  and  deteriorating  every 
day  in  discipline  and  self-respect.  Then  if  an  oppor- 
tunity offers  of  inflicting  a  sharp  check  upon  a  pre- 
sumptuous adversary,  and  of  affording  to  his  own  troops 
the  excitement  and  encouragement  of  a  successful  battle, 
be  knows  that  the  moral  effect  of  such  a  field  will  more 
than  repay  him  for  the  effort,  even  though  the  issue 
bring  him  no  material  advantage.  Mr.  Disraeli  in  his 
time  fought  many  a  battle  of  Busaco.  At  the  same  time, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  Lord  Palmerston  was  kept 
in  power  by  a  confederacy  between  Whigs  and  Radicals, 


MB,  DISBAELI  AND  LORD  DEBET,         93 

based  on  a  theory  which  had  long  ceased  to  be  a  fact ;  that 
the  hollowness  of  this  pretence  was  fully  recognised  by 
the  Radical  leaders;  and  that,  although  by  a  process  of 
dexterous  mystification  the  fiction  of  a  great  Liberal 
party  was  still  kept  alive  in  theory,  it  had  not  for 
many  years  been  a  working  reality  in  Parliament.  Lord 
Palmerston  was  the  very  man  to  head  such  a  confederacy, 
and  to  oil  its  hinges  when  they  creaked.  But,  if  the 
public  wish  to  know  what,  in  1856  and  1857,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone thought  of  the  chief  whom  he  preferred  to  Lord 
Derby,  they  need  only  refer  to  the  Life  of  Bislwp 
Wilherforce,  After  his  return  to  power  in  1859,  Lord 
Palmerston  threw  off  the  mask  and  became  virtually  a 
Tory  Prime  Minister.  The  Opposition  tactics  then  took 
another  form,  and  were  directed  rather  against  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  than  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment. But  from  1855  to  1858  this  was  not  the  case; 
and  Mr.  Disraeli  felt  that  in  all  his  attacks  on  Lord 
Palmerston  during  those  three  years  he  had  his  party 
with  him. 

Nor  is  this  .  statement  materially  affected  by  what 
occurred  in  1857.  The  famous  China  debate  of  that 
year  turned  on  a  principle  by  which  both  the  generosity 
and  common  sense  of  Englishmen  are  always  deeply 
moved.  The  doctrine  that  *'  the  servants  of  the  Crown 
must  be  supported  "  is  one  that  has  necessarily  grown  to 
be  an  article  of  faith  with  a  people  whose  flag  waves  on 
every  sea,  and  whose  colonies  and  commerce  extend  to 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  Our  honour,  our  interests, 
and  the  safety  of  our  countrymen  and  subjects  have  to  be 
protected  in  the  remotest  and  most  barbarous  regions  of 
the  earth,  and  this  never  could  have  been  done  as  it  has 
been  done  had  not  every  British  officer  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest  known  that  he  was  certain  of  support  at 


94  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD, 

home,  and  that,  placed  in  circumstances  of  difficulty 
and  danger,  and  compelled  to  act  on  his  own  respon- 
sibility alone,  the  most  fa.vourable  construction  would 
always  be  placed  upon  his  conduct  if  ever  it  should  be 
called  in  question.  These  are  broad  general  truths 
which  find  an  echo  at  once  in  the  instincts  of  the  British 
nation,  to  which  no  appeal,  so  enforced,  is  ever  addressed 
in  vain.  It  is  to  Mr.  Disraeli's  credit  that  he  quite  under- 
stood this,  that  the  debate  on  Mr.  Cobden's  motion  was 
none  of  his  seeking,  that  he  took  part  in  it  with  re- 
luctance, and  that  he  regretted  the  defeat  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  division  took  place  on  the  4th  of  March 
at  half-past  two  in  the  morning,  when  for  Mr.  Cobden's 
motion  there  were  263  and  against  it  247,  the  majority 
against  the  Government  being  16.  Lord  Palmerston 
immediately  dissolved  Parliament,  and  a  rout  of  his  oppo- 
nents followed  comparable  only  to  the  rout  of  the  Whigs 
in  '84.  Mr.  Cobden  lost  his  seat  for  Huddersfield,  Mr. 
Bright  and  Mr.  Milner  Gibson  were  rejected  at 
Manchester,  Mr.  Layard  was  defeated  at  Aylesbury, 
Mr.  Cardwell  at  Oxford,  Lord  A.  Hervey  at  Brighton, 
Mr.  Masterman  in  London.  Mr.  Roundel  Palmer  did 
not  venture  to  stand  a  contest  at  Plymouth  ;  and  the  net 
result  was  that  Lord  Palmerston  returned  to  Parliament 
with  a  clear  majority  of  seventy  over  both  Peelites  and 
Conservatives.  It  seemed  now  as  if  nothing  could 
unseat  him,  for  the  Radicals  had  received  a  sharp  lesson, 
and  the  Conservatives  had  lost  thirty  seats — nearly  all 
they  had  won  in  1852. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Mr.  Gladstone  made  his 
nearest  approach  to  a  reconciliation  with  the  Tory  party. 
He  spoke  and  voted  against  Lord  Palmerston  on  the 
Chinese  question.  He  had  previously  joined  Mr. 
Disraeli   in    condemning    Sir    G.   Cornewall    Lewis's 


MB.  DISBAELI  AND  LOUD  DERBY.         95 

Budget,  though  here  again  the  mutinous  Tories  refused 
to  follow  their  leader,  who  was  defeated  hy  a  majority  of 
eighty.  After  the  general  election  of  1857  he  still  con- 
tinued to  evince  a  friendly  spirit  towards  Lord  Derby.  He 
told  Bishop  Wilberforce  that  it  was  only  Mr.  Disraeli's 
Budget  which  made  him  oppose  the  Government  in  1852. 
And  the  Bishop  thought  that  he  was  evidently  for  a 
Conservative  alliance.  In  the  following  year,  1858j,^ 
when  an  attempt  had  been  made  on  the  life  of  the  Em- 
peror Napoleon,  and  Lord  Palmerston  in  consequence 
had  introduced  the  Conspiracy  to  Murder  Bill,  Mr. 
Milner  Gibson  moved  an  amendment,  regretting  that 
the  Government  had  not  previously  replied  in  a  fitting 
manner  to  the  remonstrance  addressed  to  them  by  the 
French  Minister.  In  favour  of  this  amendment  Mr.  Glad- 
stone both  spoke  and  voted ;  and  the  Government,  being 
defeated  by  a  majority  of  nineteen.  Lord  Palmerston 
resigned  and  made  way  for  Lord  Derby,  with  Mr. 
Disraeli  in  his  old  place. 

Before  constructing  his  Administration  Lord  Derby 
made  proposals  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle,  and  Earl  Grey.  But  they  declined  to 
join  him,  and  the  Administration  was  composed  for 
the    most  part   of  the  old  materials."^     It  had  to  en- 


*  The  second  Administration  of  the  Earl  of  Derby  was  composed 
as  follows: — 

Earl  of  Derby,  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury. 
Lord  Chelmsford,  Lord  Chancellor. 
Marquis  of  Salisbury,  Lord  President. 
Earl  of  Hardwicke,  Lord  Privy  Seal. 
Mr.  Disraeli,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 
Mr.  Walpole,  Home  Secretary. 
Earl  of  Malmesbury,  Foreign  Secretary, 
Lord  Stanley,  Colonial  Secretary. 
Colonel  Peel,  War  Secretary. 


96  LIFE  OF  LOED  BUAC0N8FIELD, 

counter  a  very  bitter  opposition,  and  was  nearly 
wrecked  upon  the  threshold,  in  consequence  of  a  ques- 
tion arising  out  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  and  relating 
to  a  despatch  addressed  by  Lord  Ellenborough,  the 
President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  to  the  Governor- 
General,  Lord  Canning,  severely  censuring  his  policy 
towards  the  landed  proprietors  of  Oude.  The  despatch 
turned  out  to  be  perfectly  justifiable  ;  and  Sir  James 
Outram,  a  valued  authority  on  Indian  questions,  en- 
tirely agreed  with  Lord  Ellenborough.  But  the  British 
public  did  not  know  all  this  ;  and  the  despatch,  un- 
luckily, being  communicated  to  members  of  the  late 
Ministry,  formed  the  basis  of  an  attack  on  the  Govern- 
ment which  threatened  to  be  fatal.  LordEllenboroucrh 
resigned,  but  the  attack  went  on.  It  was  defeated  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  But  a  motion  of  Mr.  Oardwell's 
was  debated  four  nights  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
a  majority  of  eighty  in  its  favour  was  at  one  time  antici- 
pated. Meanwhile,  however,  the  truth  had  begun  to 
leak  out.  The  supporters  of  Government  fell  away, 
and  what  followed  we  shall  tell  in  Mr.  Disraeli's  own 
words : — 

There  is  nothing  like  that  last  Friday  evening  in  the  history  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  We  came  down  to  the  House  expecting  to  divide 
at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning — myself  probably  expecting  to  deliver 
an  address  two  hours  after  midnight.  .  .  .  Our  serried  ranks  seemed 
to  rival  those  of  ©ur  proud  opponents,  when  suddenly  there  rose  a 
wail  of  distress,  but  not  from  us.      I  can  only  liken  the  scene  to  the 


Earl  of  Ellenborough,  Board  of  Control. 

Mr.  Henley,  Board  of  Trade. 

Duke  of  Montrose,  Duchy  of  Lancaster. 

Sir  John  Pakington,  Admiralty. 

Earl  of  Eglinton,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 

Lord  Naas,  Chief  Secretary. 

Lord  John  Manners,  Woods  and  Forests. 


MB.  DISRAELI  AND  LOUD  DERBY.  97 

mutiny  in  the  Bengal  army.  Regiment  after  regiment,  corps  after 
corps,  general  after  general— all  acknowledged  that  they  could  not 
march  through  Coventry.  It  was  like  a  commotion  of  nature  more 
than  an  ordinary  transaction  of  human  life.  1  can  only  liken  it  to  one  of 
those  earthquakes  which  take  place  in  Catania  and  Peru.  There  was 
a  rumbling  murmur,  a  groan,  a  shriek,  a  sound  of  distant  thunder. 
No  one  knew  whether  it  came  from  the  top  or  the  bottom  of  the 
House.  There  was  a  rent,  a  fissure  in  the  ground,  and  then  a  village 
disappeared,  then  a  tall  tower  toppled  down,  and  the  whole  of  the 
Opposition  benches  became  one  great  dissolving  view  of  anarchy. 

The  above  is  quoted  from  Mr.  Disraeli's  speech  at 
the  celebrated  Slough  banquet,  and  we  may  as  well  add 
the  words  in  which  Lord  Derby  afterwards  criticised  it : 
"  Great  as  was  the  wit,  great  as  was  the  clearness,  great 
as  was  the  humour  of  this  most  graphic  description, 
that  which  peculiarly  appertained  to  it  was  its  undeniable 
truth.  There  was  no  exaggeration,  even  of  colouring, 
for  no  exaggeration  could  be  applied  to  that  matchless 
scene  at  which — I  shall  remember  it  to  the  last  day  of 
my  life — I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  present." 

During  the  remainder  of  the  session  of  1858  the 
Government  carried  a  Bill  for  transferring  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  from  the  Company  to  the  Crown,  and  for 
the  admission  of  Jews  to  Parliament.  The  latter  was 
effected  by  means  of  a  Bill  introduced  by  Lord  Lucan 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  supported  by  Lord  Derby, 
authorising  either  House  by  Special  Eesolution  to  alter 
the  form  of  oath  to  be  taken  by  a  member.  And  thus 
Mr.  Disraeli  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  cause 
which  he  had  so  much  at  heart  triumph  under  the 
auspices  of  a  Conservative  Government, 

■^e  great  question  of  the  day,  however,  was  Parlia- 
menta'ry'reform/  which  Lord  Derby,  on  taking  Office, 
declared  himself  prepared  to  deal  with.  Mr.  Disraeli 
had  foreseen  and  provided  against  the  possibility  that 
the  Conservative  Party  would  some  day  be  called  upon 

7 


98  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEACONSFIELD, 

to  settle  this  question  ;  and  he  had  taken  an  early 
opportunity  of  anticipating  the  objection  that  it  was 
not  a  fitting  duty  for  Conservatives.  Tn  1848  he  had 
expressed  his  views  upon  the  subject,  and  in  the  interval 
had  frequently  declared  that,  though  it  was  not  with 
his  consent  that  the  settlement  of  1832  had  been  dis- 
turbed, he  reserved  to  the  Conservative  Party  the  full 
right  of  dealing  with  the  question,  now  that  their  oppo- 
nents had  re-opened  it.  It  has  been  too  much  for- 
gotten that  the  measure  of  1832  was  bv  no  means 
satisfactory  to  the  Conservatives,  and  that  Sir  Robert 
Peel  was  praised  for  his  patriotism  in  promising  honestly 
to  accept  it.  But  when  their  opponents  themselves 
revived  the  question  the  case  was  entirely  altered. 

Accordingly,  on  the  28th  of  February  1859,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  explained'  the  provisions 
of  a  Bill  which  the  Government  were  prepared  to  intro- 
duce, its  two  cardinal  provisions  being  the  equalisation 
of  the  towri  and. county  franchise,  both  beTng~Hxe3  al' 
^10,  and  the  restriction  of  the  40s.  freeholder  in  boroughs 
to  a  vote  for  the  borough  in  which  he  lived,  depriving 
him  of  his  vote  for  the  county  in  which  he  did  not  live.* 
Mr.  Disraeli  also  broached  on  this  occasion  his  theory 
of  Parliamentary  representation,  namely,  that  it  should  be 
the  representation  neither  of  population  nor  of  property, 
but  of  interests.  It  should,  he  said,  *'be  large  enough 
to  be  independent,  and  select  enough  to  be  re- 
sponsible." To  this  end  he  introduced  certain  fancy 
franchises,  as  they  were  then  called,  for  giving  votes  to 
holders  of  stock,  to  depositors  in  savings'  banks,  to 
holders  of  pensions  of  ^20  a  year  and  upwards,  and  to 
lodgers  paying  a  rent  of  8s.  a  week.     The  educational 

*  The  non-resident  borough  freeholder  would  have  retained  his  vote 
for  the  county. 


MB.  DISEAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY,  99 

franchise  gave  a  vote  to  members  of  universities,  and 
members  of  the  liberal  professions.  But  the  Bill  did 
not  satisfy  either  his  own  party  or  the  Opposition.  Mr. 
Henley  and  Mr.  Walpole  disapproved  of  identity  of 
suffrage  as  likely  to  lead  t^^a^J^  ugly  rush,"  and  retired 
from  the  Ministry.  LoroTo^nTlussell  condemned 
what  he  called  the  disfranchisement  of  the  borough 
freeholders,  though  the  Whig  Government  in  1832  had 
all  but  agreed  to  do  the  same  thing,  and  the  non-reduc- 
tion of  the  borough  franchise  ;  and,  opposing  the  second 
reading  on  these  grounds,  defeated  it  by  a  majority 
of  thirty-nine.  On  this  occasion,  too,  Mr.  Gladstone 
supported  Lord  Derby  both  by  his  speech  and  his  vote. 
Mr.  Disraeli,  in  his  introductory  speech,  demolishes 
the  mild  Conservative  policy,  which  he  calls  **a  feeble 
and  a  dangerous  policy,"  of  a  ^20  county,  and  £6 
borough  francluse,  advocated  by  the  noble  lord,  the 
Member  for  Tiverton,  and  by  his  right  honourable 
friends,  and  he  would  probably  have  said  even  at 
that  time  that  there  was  no  intermediate  halting-place 
between  the  i'lO  franchise  and  the  pure  rating  fran- 
chise. But  tliat  he  would  have  preferred  the  former 
seems  evident  from  the  following  very  remarkable  pas- 
sage. Mr.  Sturt  had  said,  in  the  course  of  the  debate, 
that  he  was  not  afraid  of  the  people.  Mr.  Disraeli 
said : — 

/^  Why,  Sir,  I  have  no  apprehension  myself  that,  if  you  had  manhood V. 
/suffrage  to-morrow,  the  honest,  brave,  and  good-natured  people  of  j 
l^^England  would  resort  to  pillage,  incendiarism,  and  massacre.  Y^'her 
expects  that  ?  But  though  I  would  do  as  much  justice  to  the  quali- 
ties of  our  countrymen  as  any  gentleman  in  this  House — though  I  may 
not  indulge  in  high-flown  and  far-fetched  expressions  with  respect  to 
them  like  those  we  have  listened  to,  for  the  people  may  have  their 
parasites  as  well  as  monarchs  and  aristocracies — yet  I  have  no  doubt 
that,  whatever  may  be  their  high  qualities,  our  countrymen  are  sub- 
ject to  the  same  political  laws  that  alTect  the  condition  of  all  other 

7  * 


100         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

communities  and  nations.  If  you  establish  a  democracy,  you  must  in 
due  season  reap  the  fruits  of  a  democracy.  You  will  in  due  season 
have  great  impatience  of  the  public  burdens  combined  in  due  season 
with  great  increase  of  the  public  expenditure.  You  will  in  due 
season  have  wars  entered  upon  from  passion  and  not  from  reason ;  and 
you  will  in  due  season  submit  to  peace  ignominiously  sought  and  igno- 
miniously  obtained,  which  will  diminish  your  authority  and  perhaps 
endanger  your  independence.  You  will  in  due  season,  with  a  demo- 
cracy, find  that  your  property  is  less  valuable,  and  that  your  freedom 
is  less  complete.  I  doubt  not,  when  there  has  been  realised  a  suflB- 
cient  quantity  of  disaffection  and  dismay,  the  good  sense  of  this 
country  will  come  to  the  rally,  and  that  you  will  obtain  some  remedy 
for  your  grievances,  and  some  redress  for  your  wrongs,  by  the  pro- 
cess through  which  alone  it  can  be  obtained — by  that  process  which 
may  make  your  property  more  secure,  but  which  will  not  render  your 
liberty  more  eminent. 

These  are  prophetic  words,  and  they  expressed  Mr. 
Disraeli's  real  convictions.  For  the  Keform  Bill  of 
1867,  he  threw  the  responsibility  first  on  those  who  had 
re-opened  the  settlement  of  1832,  and,  secondly,  on 
those  who  rejected  the  Bill  of  1859. 

Lord  Derby  dissolved  Parliament,  and  gained  largely 
at  the  elections,  but  he  was  still  left  in  a  minority  ; 
and  on  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence,  moved  by  Lord 
tlartington,  being  carried  by  a  majority  of  thirteen, 
the  second  Derby  Ministry  was  dissolved.  Lord 
Hartington's  indictment,  however,  was  not  confined 
merely  to  the  Reform  Question.  He  reproached 
Ministers  with  having  failed  to  prevent  the  war  be- 
tween France  and  Austria,  which  had  broken  out 
just  after  the  dissolution;  a  topic  handled  with  still 
more  severity  by  Lord  Palmerston,  who  implied  that 
they  had  even  threatened  France,  and  encouraged 
Austria  by  expressions  of  sympathy  and  approval. 
When  the  correspondence  between  Lord  Malmesbury 
and  the  other  Powers  came  to  be  published,  these  impu- 
tations were  sufficiently  refuted.     But  in  the  meantime 


ME.  DISRAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY.        101 

they  turned  the  scale,  and  led  to  the  downfall  of  the 
Government.  The  strangest  thing  of  all  is,  that  while 
the  debate  was  still  in  progress,  these  papers  were 
actually  printed  ;  and  why  they  were  not  laid  on  the 
table  of  the  House  is  a  mystery  to  this  day.  Lord 
Malmesbury  says,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Cowley,  of  the  18th 
of  June  1859,  that  it  was  because  Mr.  Disraeli  himself 
had  not  read  them^  and  could  not  have  fought  them  in 
debate.  But  this  does  not  seem  to  be  his  matured 
opinion,  since  five-and-twenty  years  afterwards  he  writes 
as  follows :  — 

Thus  fell  the  second  administration  of  Lord  Derby.  "With  a  dead 
majority  against  him,  it  is  evident  that  he  could  not  for  long  have 
maintained  his  ground,  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  he  would  not 
have  been  defeated  on  the  Address  if  Disraeli  had  previously  laid  on 
the  table  the  Blue  Book  containing  the  French  and  Italian  correspon- 
dence with  the  Foreign  Office.  Why  he  chose  not  to  do  so  I  never 
knew,  nor  did  he  ever  explain  it  to  me ;  but  I  presented  it  to  the 
House  of  Lords  at  the  last  moment,  and  at  least  twelve  or  fourteen 
Members  of  Parliament  who  voted  against  us  in  the  fatal  division 
came  out  of  their  way,  at  different  times  and  places,  to  assure  me  that 
had  they  read  that  correspondence  before  the  debate  they  never  would 
have  voted  for  an  amendment  which,  as  far  as  our  conduct  respecting 
the  war  was  concerned,  was  thoroughly  undeserved,  we  having  done 
everything  that  was  possible  to  preserve  peace.  Mr.  Cobden  was  one 
of  these,  and  expressed  himself  most  strongly  on  the  subject.* 

Such  also  seems  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  Mr. 
Delane,  the  editor  of  the  Times,  who,  after  reading  the 
Blue  Book,  wrote  to  Lord  Malmesbury,  as  follows  : — 

Dear  Lord  Malmesbury, 

...  I  sincerely  believe  that  if  you  had  published  your 
despatches  a  fortnight  earlier  they  would  have  had  a  very  important 
influence  on  the  division,  and  I  think  it  has  been  sufficiently  proved 
how  I  would  have  done  you  justice  irrespective  of  party  interests. 

Faithfully  yours, 

John  T.  Delane. 

*  Memoirs  of  an  ex-Minister,  vol.  ii.,  p.  189. 


102  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

Mr.  Disraeli  told  me  himself,  a  few  weeks  after  the 
division,  that  the  papers  were  not  ready.  But  how  this 
statement  is  to  be  reconciled  with  Lord  Malmesbury's 
I  do  not  pretend  to  say. 

The  Chinese  Vote  of  1857,  the  unsuccessful  Reform 
Bill,  and  the  mismanagement,  as  was  supposed,  of  the 
Debate  on  Lord  Hartington's  amendment  weakened 
for  a  time  the  confidence  of  the  Opposition  in  Mr. 
Disraeli's  powers  ;  and  the  next  five  years  were  not  the 
happiest  period  of  his  Parliamentary  career.  Many 
members  of  the  Tory  party  thought  Lord  Palmerston  a 
better  leader  than  their  own  ;  and  when  the  latter  had 
planned  an  attack,  which,  if  properly  supported  by  the 
Opposition,  would  have  turned  out  the  Government,  he 
had  the  mortification  of  seeing  the  officer  to  whom  it 
was  entrusted  refuse  to  fight  when  he  understood  what 
the  consequences  would  be.  The  question  was  reduc- 
tion of  expenditure,  and  the  debate  occurred  the  day 
before  the  Derby.     Mr.  Disraeli  said  : — 

I  see  several  amendments  on  the  paper  which  are  offered  for  the 
purpose  of  attaining  it  [a  reduction].  With  most  of  them  I  am 
obHged,  for  one  reason  or  another,  to  differ  ;  there  remained  that  of 
my  right  honourable  friend,  which  I  was  disposed  to  prefer  to  them 
all.  To-morrow  I  believe  we  shall  all  be  engaged  elsewhere.  I 
daresay  that  many  honourable  gentlemen  who  take  more  interest  than 
I  do  in  that  noble  pastime  will  have  their  favourites.  I  hope  they 
will  not  be  so  unlucky  as  to  find  their  favourites  bolting.  If  they 
are  placed  in  that  dilemma  they  will  be  better  able  to  understand 
and  sympathise  with  my  feelings  on  this  occasion. 

I  have  been  told  that,  during  the  greater  part  of  Lord 
Palmerston's  second  administration,  Hr.'Disraeli  was  a 
good  deal  isolated  from  his  party.  And  in  point  of 
fact,  "the  policy  of  Lord  Palmerston  left  very  little  for  the 
leader  of  the  Opposition  to  do.  It  was  a  time  of  peacej._ 
to  which  many  old  Conservatives  looked  back  after  his 
death,  as  Tories  of  the  older  school  looked   back   after 


MB.  DISRAELI  AND  LOUD  DERBY,        103 

the  Keform  Bill,  to  the  halcyon  days  of  Lord  Liver- 
pool. Throughout  the  whole  of  it  foreign  afifairs 
were  the  p rincipaFstrhrj^ctifffTcnfe^^  Lor^^ussell  was 
Foreign  Secretary,  and,  in  the  atTsence  of  domestic  topics, 
Lord  Russell  and  Italy,  Lord  Russell  and  Savoy,  Lord 
Russell  and  the  Rope,  Lord  Russell  and  Denmark,  Lord 
Russell  and  the  Emperors  of  Russia,  Austria,  and  France, 
afforded  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  amusement  every 
session  to  both  Houses  of  Parliament.  The  "rich 
harvest  of  autumnal  indiscretions,"  as  Mr.  Disraeli 
facetiously  termed  the  annual  results  of  Lord  Russell's 
work  in  the  recess,  supplied  the  leader  of  the  Opposi- 
tion with  food  for  many  brilliant  efforts  ;  and  scat- 
tered up  and  down  the  volumes  o^  ^a?isa7'ct  dimng 
these  five  years  are  to  be  found  some  of  the  most 
masterly  speeches  on  the  foreign  policy  of  England  which 
Parliament  can  boast,  and  which  make  one  sometimes 
regret  that  so  important  a  department  of  public  affairs 
had  never  been  committed  to  one  who,  in  many  circum- 
stances of  his  career  as  well  as  in  his  conception  of 
English  interests,  so,closely^esembled  Canning.  lT^- 

Sorae  of  his  best  speeches  on  TTomestic  subjects  werte 
delivered  during  the  same  period.  Among  them  may  be 
mentioned  a  speech  on  Commercial  Treaties  on  the  17th 
of  February  1863,  one  on  Reform  in  1865,  and  four 
speeches  on  the  Church  of  England  in  the  year  1861, 
1862,  1863,  and  1864  respectively.  The  gist  of  his 
remarks  on  Commercial  Treaties  was  that  they  could  do 
us  very  little  good  now,  when,  owing  to  our  Free  Trade 
policy,  we  had  nothing  left  to  give  in  exchange.  His 
speeches  on  the  Church  of  England,  taken  together, 
constitute  a  little  treatise,  and  were  collected  and  pub- 
lished in  pamphlet  form  under  the  title  of  Charcli,  and 
Queen,     The  first  was  spoken  on  the  14th  of  November 


104  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

1861,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Oxford  Diocesan  Church 
Societies,  with  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  in  the  chair.  ^' In 
this  speech  the  statesman  addresses  himself  to  what  he 
conceives  to  be  the  want  of  union  in  the  Church,  which 
prevents  her  from  showing  that  irresistible  front  to 
her  opponents,  which,  under  other  circumstances,  she 
might  present.  He  traces  the  disanion  to  three  causes : 
a  feeling  of  perplexity  arising  out  of  the  state  of  parties 
in  the  Church,  a  feeling  of  distrust  arising  out  of  the 
existence  of  scepticism  within  her  pale,  and  a  feeling  of 
discontent  arising  out  of  her  relations  with  the  civil 
power, 

Mr.  Disraeli  said  that  there  had  always  been  par- 
ties in  the  Church,  that  the  scepticism  was  stale  and 
oft-repeated  scepticism,  and  the  connection  with  the 
State  conferred  a  benefit  on  the  Church,  for  which  she 
would  do  well  to  endure  all  its  inconveniences.  Mr. 
Disraeli,  however,  forgot  that  though  there  may  always 
have  been  parties  in  the  Church,  they  were  not  always 
at  open  hostilities  with  each  other.  Between  the  Re- 
formation and  the  Restoration  they  were  so,  neither 
believing  that  tho  other  had  any  lawful  footing  in  the 
Church  of  England.  And  we  know  what  followed.  But 
from  the  Restoration  to  the  Oxford  Revival  such  was 
not  the  case.  The  High  Church  and  the  Low  Church 
parties  existed  alongside  of  each  other,  without  either 
wishing  to  exterminate  the  rival  school.  But  the  quarrel 
between  the  Ritualists  and  Evangelicals  seemed  at  one 
time  likely  to  develop  into  soraetliing  almost  as  dan- 
gerous as  that  between  Puritan  and  Anglican.  As  for 
the  scepticism,  it  mattered  little  whether  it  was  old  or 
new,  if  it  continued  to  unsettle  men's  minds  and  shake 
their  faith  in  the  sincerity  of  the  clergy.  It  was  in  that 
speech  that  Mr.  Disraeli  passed  his  famous  judgment 


MR,  DISRAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY.        105 

upon  the  Essayists  and  Reviewers,  saying  that  though 
he  was  '*all  for  free  enquiry,  it  must  be  by  free  en- 
quirers/^ He  was  quite  right,  however,  in  the  conclu- 
sion to  which  he  was  leading  up,  namely,  that  union 
among  Churchmen  only  could  avert  the  disestablishment 
of  the  Church.  The  clergy  must  not  be  deceived  by  the 
victories  of  the  Conservative  Party  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  the  question  of  Church  rates.  The  enemies 
of  the  Church  might  be  only  a  minority,  "  but  the  his- 
tory of  suc^3ess  is  the  history  of  minorities." 

The  second  of  these  speeches  was  delivered  at  High 
Wycombe,  at  a  public  meeting  held  in  aid  of  the  Society 
for  the  Augmentation  of  Small  Benefices,  on  the  30th 
of  October  1862,  and  in  this  and  in  the  fourth  of  the 
series,  he  sketches  out  the  means  by  which  the  Church 
may  assert  her  nationality,  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  so 
large  a  part  of  the  nation  is  estranged  from  her  commu- 
nion. His  suggestions  are  eight  in  number.  The 
Church  must  educate  the  people.  She  must  increase 
the  episcopate.  She  must  jealously  maintain  her  exist- 
ing parochial  constitution.  She  must  invite  the  co- 
operation of  the  laity  in  Church  government.  She  must 
endeavour,  as  far  as  possible,  to  place  the  pecuniary  posi- 
tion of  the  clergy  on  a  more  satisfactory  footing.  Con- 
vocation should  be  constituted  on  a  broader  basis,  with 
a  better  representation  of  the  parochial  clergy,  and, 
perhaps,  a  union  of  the  two  provinces.  The  relations 
of  the  Colonial  Church  with  the  Metropolitan  must  be 
improved.  And,  finally,  a  satisfactory  Court  of  Appeal 
in  ecclesiastical  causes  must  be  established. 

In  all  these  recommendations  we  can  see  the  laborious 
effort  of  a  powerful  and  acute  intellect  to  throw  itself 
into  a  cause  which  appeals  to  the  speaker's  head  more 
than  to  his  heart;  an  effort  which,  we  cannot  help  say- 


106         LIFE  OF  LOED  BEACONSFIELD. 

ing,  is  not  entirely  successful.  There  is  something 
artifi(3ial  in  the  earnestness  with  which  he  presses  these 
counsels  on  the  Church;  and,  more  than  all,  there  is  an 
absence  of  what  elsewhere  never  fails  him — that  tone  of 
originality  and  freshness  with  which  his  remarks,  even 
on  the  most  hackneyed  topics,  were  usually  characterised. 
At  the  same  time,  his  suggestions  are  practical  and  sen- 
sible, and  most  of  them  are  now  numbered  among  recog- 
nised ecclesiastical  necessities. /There  are, moreover, in  the 
last  of  these  speeches,  some  striking  and  eloquent  passages, 
principally  in  relation  to  the  new  school  of  scepticism 
which  was  then  developing  itself.      Mr.  Disraeli  asks — ■ 

Will  these  opinions  succeed  ?  Is  there  a  possibility  of  their  suc- 
cess ?  My  conviction  is  that  they  will  fail.  I  wish  to  do  justice  to 
the  acknowledged  talent,  the  influence,  and  information  which  the 
new  party  command ;  but  I  am  of  opinion  that  they  will  fail,  for  two 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  having  examined  all  their  writings,  I 
believe,  without  any  exception,  whether  they  consist  of  fascinating 
eloquence,  diversified  learning,  and  picturesque  sensibility — I  speak 
seriously  what  I  feel — and  that,  too,  exercised  by  one  honoured  in 
this  University,  and  whom  to  know  is  to  admire  and  to  regard ;  or 
whether  you  find  them  in  the  cruder  conclusions  of  prelates  who 
appear  to  have  commenced  their  theological  studies  after  they  had 
grasped  the  crozier,  and  who  inti'oduce  to  society  their  obsolete  dis- 
coveries with  the  startling  wonder  and  frank  ingenuousness  of  their 
own  savages  ;  or  whether  I  read  the  lucubrations  of  nebulous  profes- 
sors, who  seem  in  their  style  to  revive  chaos  ;  or,  lastly,  whether  it 
be  the  provincial  arrogance  and  the  precipitate  self-complacency 
which  flash  and  flare  in  an  essay  or  review,  I  find  the  common  cha- 
racteristic of  their  writings  is  this — that  their  learning  is  always 
secondhand. 

All  that  inexorable  logic,  irresistible  rhetoric,  bewitching  wit,  could 
avail  to  popularise  those  views,  were  set  in  motion  to  impress  the 
new  learning  on  the  minds  of  the  two  leading  nations  of  Europe — the 
people  of  England  and  the  people  of  France.  And  they  produced 
their  effect.  The  greatest  of  revolutions  was,  I  will  not  say,  occa- 
sioned by  those  opinions,  but  no  one  can  deny  that  their  promulgation 
largelj'  contributed  to  that  mighty  movement  popularly  called  the 
French  Revolution,  which  has  not  yet  ended,  and  which  is  certainly 


MB.  DISBAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY.        107 

the  greatest  event  that  has  happened  in  the  history  of  man.  Only 
the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  can  be  compared  to  it ;  but  that  waa 
going  on  for  centuries,  and  so  gradually,  that  it  cannot  for  one 
moment  be  held  to  have  so  instantaneously  influenced  the  opinion  of 
the  world.  Now,  what  has  happened  ?  Look  at  the  age  in  which 
we  live,  and  the  time  when  these  opinions  were  successfully  promul- 
gated by  men  who,  I  am  sure,  with  no  intention  to  disparage  a  new 
party,  I  may  venture  to  say  were  not  unequal  to  them.  Ajook  at  the 
Europe  of  the  present  day,  and  the  Europe  of  a  century  ago.  It  is 
not  the  same  Europe ;  its  very  form  is  changed ;  whole  nations  and 
great  nations  which  then  flourished  have  disappeared.  There  is  not 
a  political  constitiition  in  Europe  existing  at  the  present  time  which 
then  existed.  The  leading  community  of  the  Continent  of  Europe 
has  changed  all  its  landmarks,  altered  its  boundaries,  erased  its  local 
names.  The  whole  jurisprudence  of  Europe  has  been  subverted. 
Even  the  tenure  of  land,  which  of  all  human  institutions  most  affects 
the  character  of  man,  has  been  altered.  The  feudal  system  has  been 
abolished.  Not  merely  manners  have  been  changed,  but  customs 
have  been  changed.  And  what  has  happened  ?  When  the  turbulence 
was  over,  when  the  shout  of  triumph  and  the  wail  of  agony  were  alike 
stilled;  when,  as  it  were,  the  waters  had  subsided,  the  sacred 
heights  of  Sinai  and  of  Cavalry  were  again  revealed,  and  amid  the 
wreck  of  thrones  and  tribunals,  of  extinct  nations  and  abolished 
laws,  mankind,  tried  by  so  many  sorrows,  purified  by  so  much 
suffering,  and  wise  with  such  unprecedented  experience,  bowed  again 
before  the  decisive  truths  that  Omnipotence  in  His  ineffable  wisdom 
had  entrusted  to  the  custody  and  the  promulgation  of  a  chosen 
people. 

The  simile  at  the  end  of  this  passage  occurs  in  Can- 
ning's speech  in  proposing  the  vote  of  thanks  to  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  after  the  battle  of  Vittoria.  Sir 
Walter  Scott  has  also  introduced  it  in  his  Life  of  Napo- 
leon. But  Lord  Beaconsfield  has  embellished  it,  and 
applied  it  with  increased  effect. 

This,  too,  is  the  speech  in  which  another  memorable 
phrase  occurs : — '*  What  is  the  question  now  placed 
before  society  with  a  glib  assurance  the  most  astound- 
ing ?  The  question  is  this  :  Is  man  an  ape  or  an  angel  ? 
My  Lord,  I  am  on  the  side  of  the  angels." 


108  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAG0N8F1ELB. 

The  following  remark,  again,  is  well  worthy  of  being 
recorded  : — 

There  is  another  point  in  connection  with  this  subject  which  I  can- 
not help  noticing  on  the  present  occasion.  It  is  the  common  cry — the 
common  blunder — that  articles  of  faith  and  religious  creeds  are  the 
arms  of  a  clergy,  and  are  framed  to  tyrannise  over  a  land.  They  are 
exactly  the  reverse.  The  precise  creed  and  the  strict  article  are  the 
title  deeds  of  the  laity  to  the  religion  which  has  descended  to  them  ; 
and  whenever  these  questions  have  been  brought  before  Parliament,  I 
have  always  opposed  alterations  of  articles  and  subscriptions  on  this 
broad  principle — that  the  security  and  certainty  which  they  furnish 
are  the  special  privileges  of  the  laity,  and  that  you  cannot  tell  in 
what  position  the  laity  may  find  themselves  if  that  security  be  with- 
drawn. 

In  the  year  1862  Mr.  Disraeli  re-published,  in  the 
form  of  a  pamphlet,  two  financial  speeches,  one  deli- 
vered in  February  1860,  on  the  introduction  of  the 
Budget,  the  other  on  the  8th  of  April  1862,  on  a  similar 
occasion.  The  two  together  form  a  summary  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  financial  policy  from  1853  to  1862,  and 
events  have  to  some  extent  justified  Mr.  Disraeli's 
criticism.  They  certainly  tend  to  modify  the  somewhat 
extravagant  estimate  which  had  been  formed  of  Mr. 
Gladstone  as  a  financier,  and  to  suggest  that  his  highly 
popular  projects  were  more  showy  than  safe. 

The  General  Election  of  1865  was  unfavourable  to 
the  Conservatives,  and  after  Lord  Palmerston's  death  in 
the  autumn  of  that  year  Earl  Russell  succeeded  to  the 
Treasury  with  a  nominal  majority  of  seventy.  But  a 
considerable  proportion  of  these  had  been  returned  to 
support  the  late  Premier,  and  in  the  admission  of  Mr. 
Bright  to  the  confidence  of  the  new  Cabinet  they  saw 
little  guaranteefor  the  further  continuation  of  his  policy. 
A  Reform  Bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  dealing 
only  with  the  franchise,  and  postponing  to  a  more  con- 
venient season  the  redistribution  of  seats.      The  objec- 


MB.  DISRAELI  AND  LOUD  DERBY.        109 

tion  to  this  plan  is  obvious.  If  the  Ministry  were 
allowed  to  carry  their  Franchise  Bill  by  itself,  they 
would  be  able  to  dissolve  Parliament  and  appeal  to  the 
enfranchised  classes  on  the  question  of  redistribution 
only.  Thus  they  would  be  sure  of  a  majority,  and  could 
manufacture  their  electorate  as  they  pleased. 

Disaffected  supporters  and  keen-witted  opponents 
were  not  likely  to  lose  this  opportunity.  The  plan  was  de- 
feated by  a  combined  movement  of  the  two — the  present 
Duke  of  Westminster  and  the  present  Earl  of  Derby 
being  the  mover  and  seconder  of  a  hostile  resolution. 
Now  was  formed  the  celebrated  "  Cave  " — a  body  of 
seceders  from  the  Ministerial  Party  likened  by  Mr. 
Bright  to  the  inmates  of  the  Cave  of  Adullam.  They 
included  the  present  Duke  of  Westminster,  LordWemyss, 
and  Lord  Sherbrooke,  all  three  at  that  time  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  the  Earl  of  Lichfield,  his  brother,  Major 
Anson,  Member  fur  Lichfield,  and  numbered  altogether 
some  twenty  or  thirty  votes,  sufficient,  as  it  proved,  to 
support  the  Conservative  Government  in  their  Reform 
Bill  of  the  following  year.  But  though  Ministers, 
left  with  a  majority  of  only  five,  abandoned  their 
proposal  and  brought  in  a  complete  measure,  they 
never  recovered  from  the  shock,  and,  after  a  pro- 
tracted struggle,  marked  by  various  vicissitudes, 
they  fell  before  a  resolution  of  Lord  Dunkellin's, 
affirming  the  superiority  of  a  rating  to  a  rental  fran- 
chise. 

Had  these  events  happened  but  one  year  earlier 
— had  Lord  Palmerston  died  in  the  autumn  of  1864, 
and  Lord  BusselTs  Government  been  defeated  before 
the  General  Election  of  1865 — how  different  our  his- 
tory might  have  been  !  The  Tories  in  that  case  would 
have  dissolved  their  own  Parliament ;  all  the  Conserva- 


110  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEACONSFIFLD. 

tive  public  feeling  which  went  to  support  Lord  Palmer- 
ston  would  have  gone  to  swell  their  own  ranks,  and 
instead  of  losing,  as  they  did,  nearly  twenty  seats,  they 
would  probably  have  gained  double,  and  have  returned 
to  Parliament  with  a  clear  working  majority.  But  it 
was  not  to  be,  and  for  the  third  time  Mr.  Disraeli  found 
himself  Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons  with  only  a 
minority  at  his  back."^ 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  policy  of  the  Tory 
Cabinet  was  spirited  and  sagacious.  It  might  certainly 
have  been  desirable,  had  it  been  possible,  that  the 
settlement  of  1832  should  remain  undisturbed,  though 
founded  on  no  principle,  and  exposed  to  criticisms 
against  which  the  argument  from  experience,  however 
brilliantly  enforced,  was  always  felt  to  be  inadequate. 
But  it  was  not  possible.  The  Whig-Radical  Party  had 
committed  themselves  to  a  further  change;  and  they 
could  have  turned  out  any  Tory  Government  at  a 
months'  notice,  which  declared  itself  hostile  to  reform. 

The  third  Derhy  Administration  was  composed  as  follows : — 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  Earl  of  Derhy. 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Disraeli. 
Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  Chelmsford. 
Home  Secretary,  Mr.  Walpole. 
Foreign  Secretary,  Lord  Stanley. 
Colonial  Secretary,  Lord  Carnarvon. 
Secretary  for  "War,  General  Peel. 
Secretary  for  India,  Lord  Cranboume. 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  Marquis  of  Abercom. 
Chief  Secretary,  Lord  Naas. 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  Sir  J.  Pakington. 
Lord  President,  Duke  of  Buckingham. 
Lord  Privy  Seal,  Eai'l  of  Malmesbury. 
Commissioner  of  Works,  Lord  John  Manners. 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  Sir  S.  Northcote. 
President  of  the  Poor-Law  Board,  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy. 
Postmaster-General,  Duke  of  Montrose. 


ME.  DISRAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY.        Ill 

There  was  but  one  thing  to  do.  The  Conservative 
leaders  saw  from  the  first  that  if  you  could  not  defend 
the  ^610  test,  you  could  not  defend  any  other  equally 
arbitrary  one.  The  existing  franchise  had  acquired 
some  prescriptive  sanctity.  Parliaments  returned  by  it 
had  done  great  things.  If  the  people  would  not  hold 
by  that,  what  chance  was  there  that  they  would  long 
endure  a  £1  franchise  with  no  such  titles  to  their  reve- 
rence ?  Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli  thought  the  £10 
franchise  worth  a  fight ;  and  they  fought  in  its  defence 
a  gallant  and  well-contested  action.  But  having  once 
been  beaten  on  it  they  treated  that  result  as  final,  and 
resolved  to  have  no  more  to  do  with  it.  Mr.  Henley,  a 
typical  Conservative,  took  the  same  view;  and  even 
Lord  Sherbrooke  himself  acknowledged  that  there  was 
no  permanent  resting-place  between  the  ^610  franchise 
and  household  sufi'rage. 

Mr.  Disraeli,  however,  determined,  if  he  could,  to 
remove  the  question  from  the  domain  of  party,  and  to 
make  the  whole  House  of  Commons  assist  him  in  the 
work.  This  was  the  meaning  of  his  celebrated  thirteen 
"  Kesolutions,"  by  means  of  which  he  hoped  to  ascer- 
tain the  collective  opinion  of  the  House,  so  as  to  frame 
a  measure  which  could  not  be  assailed  on  pure  party 
grounds.  As  the  success  of  this  proposal  would  have 
had  the  effect  of  disarming  the  Opposition,  its  leaders, 
of  course,  refused  it,  and  the  Cabinet  was  compelled  to 
bring  in  a  Bill  at  once.  Mr.  Disraeli  proposed  a  £15 
county  franchise,  and  a  borough  franchise  based  on 
household  rating',  combined  with  two  years'  residence 
and  personal  payment  of  rates.  But  between  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Resolutions  on  the  11th  of  February  and 
the  further  discussion  of  them  on  the  25th,  doubt  arose 
in  the  minds  of  Lord  Cranborne,  Lord  Carnarvon,  and 


112         LIFE  OF  LORD   BEACONSIIELD, 

General  Peel  with  regard  to  the  rating  suffrage,  and  on 
Sunday  the  24th  they  placed  their  resignation  in  the 
hands  of  Lord  Derby.  They  consented  to  remain  on 
condition  that  a  different  measure  was  proposed ;  and 
the  '*  Ten  Minutes'  Bill/'  substituting  a  £6  franchise  in 
the  borough,  was  adopted.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  literally 
hardly  more  than  an  hour  to  prepare  himself  for  this 
sudden  change  of  front,  and  he  offered  to  resign  office 
rather  than  undertake  a  task  so  much  to  his  own  dis- 
taste. However,  he  was  overruled.  At  three  o'clock 
on  that  Monday  afternoon,  February  25th,  he  had  eaten 
nothing,  and,  after  taking  a  single  glass  of  wine  in 
Downing  Street,  he  went  down  to  the  House,  there  to 
discharge  his  allotted  task  with  an  air  of  depression 
and  deprecation  which  surprised  everyone  who  heard 
him.  The  Bill,  naturally,  was  only  born  to  perish,  and 
the  Government  and  the  Conservative  Party  had  now  to 
consider  what  course  they  should  pursue.  The  Govern- 
ment, however,  was  not  left  to  decide.  A  meeting  was  held 
at  the  Carlton  Club,  the  result  of  which  was  to  inform  the 
Prime  Minister  and  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
that  the  Tory  Party  now  would  support  the  original 
scheme  and  no  other.  Thus,  so  far  from  Mr.  Disraeli 
having  dragged  an  unwilling  party  after  him,  the  party 
itself  insisted  upon  his  acting  as  he  did ;  and  he  had  no 
sincerer  supporters  through  the  desperate  struggles 
which  ensued  than  some  of  those  very  county  members 
whose  trust  he  was  said  to  have  abused.^ 

Whatever  may  have  been  thought  of  the  policy  of 
the  Government  measure,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Mr. 
Disraeli's  parliamentary  reputation  was  enormously 
enhanced  by  his  conduct  of  it.  So  bitter  and  ruthless 
an  opposition  has  rarely  been  met  by  such  consum- 
mate tact,   such    immovable    good    temper,   such    alert 


MB.  mSBAELI  AND  LORD  DERBY.       113 

logic,  and  such  perfect  self-possession.  His  humorous 
comments  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  bursts  of  passion  de- 
lighted both  sides  of  the  House;  the  easy  good-humoui 
with  which  he  expressed  his  satisfaction  at  having  had 
the  table  between  himself  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  during 
one  of  that  gentleman's  diatribes,  destroyed  its  whole 
effect  in  a  moment.  His  description  of  Mr.  Lowe,  aftei 
that  gentleman  had  referred,  in  illustration  of  his  own 
position,  to  the  Battle  of  Hastings  and  the  Battle  ol 
Chseronea,  as  an  '*  inspired  school-boy  "  ;  and  his  retort 
on  Mr.  Beresford  Hope,  who  refused  to  support  an 
Asian  mystery,  that  in  his  severest  sarcasms  there  was 
a  "  Batavian  grace  "  which  robbed  his  words  of  ail  their 
sting,  will  never  be  forgotten,  either  by  those  who 
heard  him  at  the  time,  or  those  who  treasure  up  the 
traditions  of  Parliamentary  eloquence  and  wit. 

Nor  were  his  graver  eflPorts  less  surprising.  One 
night  he  wound  up  a  great  debate,  answering  the 
House  all  round  in  a  speech  of  three  hours  duration, 
without  a  single  note  ;  and  it  was  allowed  on  all  sides 
that  he  had  not  missed  a  point,  nor  failed  to  make 
the  most  of  an  argument  throughout  the  whole  of  it. 
When  after  his  first  great  division  against  the  whole 
might  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  which  he  won  by  a  majority 
of  twenty-one,  Tory  members  crowded  up  to  the 
Treasury  Bench  to  shake  hands  with  and  congratu- 
late him,  they  only  expressed  the  feeling  of  tliree- 
fourths  of  the  House,  who  would  have  liked  to  pay 
the  same  tribute  of  admiration  to  s6  genial  and  gall  an 
an  antagonist. 

The  Franchise  clauses  of  the  Bill  itself,  as  origi- 
nally introduced  by  its  author,  will  be  found  in  the 
Appendix.  It  was  greatly  altered  for  the  worse  in 
Committee.      But   Mr.  Disraeli    is  not  responsible  for 

8 


/ 


lU         LIFE  OF  LORD  BFAC0N8FIELB. 

the  consequences.  As  it  originally  stood,  it  was  a  much 
more  Conservative  measure  than  in  its  final  form.  The 
abolition  of  the  compound  householder,  and  the  change 
of  two  years  residence  for  one,  destroyed  two  of  its 
principal  securities. 

The  year  1868  brought  to  Mr.  Disraeli,  in  his  sixty 
third  year,  the  prize  to  which  he  had  aspired  from  his 
early  manhood,  and  for  which  he  had  served  as  few 
have  ever  served  before  him.  He  had  fought  his  way 
by  his  eloquence  and  bis  wit,  and,  on  the  resignation 
of  Lord  Derby  in  March  1868,  he  was  at  once  recog- 
nised by  all  competent  judges  as  his  only  possible 
successor.  His  speech  on  taking  his  seat  as  Prime 
Minister  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  brief  and 
dignified ;  and  so  was  his  tenure  of  the  office.  But  it 
^ust  always  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important 
events  in  modern  history,  as  it  undoubtedly  had  the 
effect  of  re-opening  the  Irish  Question,  and  entailed  on 
us  the  long  and  disastrous  train  of  consequences  which 
seem  still  to  be  unexhausted.  If  we  allow  Mr.  Gladstone's 
Irish  Resolutions  of  1868  to  have  been  a  legitimate 
party  move,  the  fact  remains  that  but  for  Mr.  Disraeh's 
elevation  to  the  Premiership,  and  his  prospects  of  a 
majority  at  the  next  General  Election,  these  resolutions 
would  never  have  been  introduced,  and  the  terrible 
struggle  of  the  last  eight  years  would  have  been  either 
postponed  or  averted  altogether. 


115 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MR.    DISRAELI   AS   LEADER   OF    THE   PARTY, 

1868-1881. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  Irish  Resolutions — Mr.  Disraeli's  speech  on  the  Abys- 
Binian  war — General  Election  of  1868 — Mr.  Disraeli's  speeches  in 
Opposition — Death  of  Lady  Beaconsfield — Refusal  to  take  office 
in  1873 — Mr.  Disraeli  Lord  Rector  of  the  University  of  Glasgow 
— The  Conservative  reaction — Mr.  Disraeli  and  the  masses — The 
Cabinet  of  1874 — The  Pubhc  Worship  Regulation  BiW—Sanitas 
sanitafum — Social  legislation — Educational  measures — Ecclesias- 
tical questions — The  Royal  Titles  Act — Mr.  Disraeli  becomes 
Lord  Eeaconstield — Foreign  policy  of  his  Administration — The 
Eastern  Question — The  Bulgarian  A^ocities — The  March  Pro- 
tcicpl — Declai-ation  of  War  by  Russia — The  treaty  of  San  Stephano 
and  its  consequences — The  Treaty  of  Berlin — Its  results — The 
The  Anglo-Turkish  Convention—  Peace  with  Honour — The  Aff- 
^ghan__jsar — Unpopularity  of  the  Government — The  General 
Election  of  1880— Liorcl  l^eaconstield's  last  appearances  in  Parlia- 
ment— His  illness  and  death — Grief  of  the  nation — The  funeral 
at  Hughenden— Visit  of  the  Queen -rThe  Primrose  League — 
Tributes  to  Lord  Beaconsfiold's  memory. 

Henceforth  we  have  to  regnrd  Mr.  Disraeli  and 
Mr.  Gladstone  as  the  two  rival  chieliTof  Conservatism 
.and  Liberalism,  towering  by  a  head  and  shoulders  over 
alT~tTieIr  contemporaries,  and  converting  party  warfare 
into  a  duel  between  the  two  heroes.  It  was  in  1868 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  brought  in  the  first  of  his  Irish 

8   * 


116         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIFLD. 

Eesolutions,  which,  after  a  long  debate  and  a  powerful 
reply  from  the  Prime  Minister,  was  carried  by  a  ma- 
jority of  sixty-five.  Mr.  Disraeli  then  said  that  as  the 
appeal  was  ultimately  lo  the  nation  he  would  not  give 
the  House  the  trouble  of  dividing  upon  the  others. 
But  he  was  not  allowed  to  escape  without  a  severe 
cross-examination,  conducted  by  Mr.  Bright  and  Mr. 
Gladstone,  whose  contention  was  that  he  ought  to  have 
resigned  at  once.  But  his  position  was  this :  he 
would  not  allow  that  the  existing  House  of  Commons 
was  a  fair  judge  of  the  question.  When  an  adverse 
vote  may  fairly  be  taken  to  express  the  opinion  of  the 
country,  a  constitutional  minister  resigns;  when  there 
is  a  doubt  upon  the  point,  he  dissolves  Parliament, 
and  puts  the  question  directly  to  the  people.  These 
are  the  two  constitutional  courses,  one  or  other  of 
which  a  minister  is  bound  to  adopt.  Now,  what  had 
been  the  recent  history  of  the  Irish  Church  question 
up  to  that  period  ?  Shortly  before  the  last  General 
Election,  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  had  spoken  of  the  Irish 
Church  as  a  question  *'  out  of  the  domain  of  practical 
politics,"  as  surrounded  with  *'  immense  difficulties,"  and 
as  not  likely  to  come  forward  in  his  own  time — exactly 
as  he  speaks  of  the  Church  of  England  now.  With 
these  statements  staring  the  country  in  the  face,  the 
question  of  the  Irish  Church  could  have  had  no  in- 
fluence whatever  in  determining  the  choice  of  the 
constituencies.  The  existing  House  of  Commons, 
therefore,  was  no  adequate  reflection  of  public  opinion 
on  the  subject ;  consequently  it  was  no  part  of  Mr. 
Disraeli's  duty  to  resign  office. 

The  legitimate  alternative  was  to  advise  Her  Majesty 
to  dissolve.  This,  then,  was  the  course  which  he  adopted, 
coupling  his  advice,  however,  with  a  tender  of  resignation 


DISBAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     117 

should  it  seem  more  conducive  to  Her  Majesty's  personal 
convenience.  Pestered  with  inquiries  as  to  whether 
he  had  recommended  an  appeal  to  the  present  con- 
stituencies or  the  new  ones,  Mr.  Disraeli  said  his 
advice  had  been  quite  general,  and  would  include  an 
appeal  to  either,  but  that  he  hoped  it  might  be  possible 
to  make  his  appeal  to  the  latter  in  the  following 
autumn.  With  this  statement,  the  Opposition  was 
obliged  to  be  contented,  and  with  a  few  lingering  growls, 
their  anger  gradually  subsided.  But  it  is  perfectly 
clear  that  Mr.  Disraeli  had  only  followed  the  course 
prescribed  by  the  Constitution  in  taking  the  opinion  of 
the  country  before  he  retired  from  the  helm.  Had  he 
been  forced  by  the  factiousness  of  Opposition  to  dis- 
solve before  the  new  system  was  completed,  and  so 
necessitate  two  general  elections,  one  upon  the  heels  of 
the  other,  that  would  have  been  their  fault,  not  his. 

Before  the  Session  of  1868  was  over,  it  fell  to  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli's lot  to  propose  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  troops  en- 
gaged in  the  Abyssinian  war,  which  had  been  undertaken 
in  1867  to  obtain  the  release  of  some  Englishmen  kept 
in  prison  by  the  King  of  that  country.  In  the  course 
of  his  speech  the  Prime  Minister  said  that  Englishmen 
must  take  a  peculiar  interest  in  the  fact  that  "  the 
standard  of  St.  George  had  been  hoisted  on  the  moun- 
tains of  Easselas."  It  has  been  alleged  that  Johnson 
was  not  thinking  of  the  real  mountains  of  Abyssinia 
wlien  he  wrote  Rasselas.  The  objection  would  be 
hypercritical  in  any  case.  But  in  my  edition  of  Lord 
Beaconsfield's  speeches,  will  be  found  some  information 
supplied  by  Lord  Stanley  of  Alderley,  which  makes  it 
almost  certain  that  Johnson  was  thinking  of  the  real 
mountains  when  he  wrote."^ 

*  See  Speeches^  vol.  ii.  p.  129. 


118         LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELD. 

On  the  eve  of  the  General  Election  of  1868,  Mr. 
Disraeli  issued  an  address  to  his  constituents,  brief 
indeed,  but  expressing  a  great  truth  with  that  terse 
and  concise  gravity  which  is  the  highest  excellence  of 
that  kind  of  composition. 

So  long  as  there  is  in  this  country  the  connection  through  the 
medium  of  a  Protestant  Sovereign  between  the  State  and  the  National 
Church,  religious  liberty  is  secure.  That  security  is  now  assailed  by 
various  means  and  on  different  pleas  ;  but  admidst  the  discordant 
activity  of  many  factions  there  moves  the  supreme  purpose  of  one 
power.  The  philosopher  may  flatter  himself  he  is  advancing  the 
cause  of  enlightened  progress  ;  the  sectarians  may  be  roused  to  exer- 
tion by  anticipations  of  the  downfall  6f  ecclesiastical  systems.  These 
are  transient  efforts,  vain  and  passing  aspirations.  The  ultimate, 
trmmph,  were  our  Church  to  fall,  would  be  to  that  power  which 
would  substitute  for  the  authority  of  one  sovereign  the  supremacy  of 
a  foreign  prince,  to  that  power  with  whose  traditions,  learning,  and  dis- 
cipline, and  organization  our  Church  alone  has  hitherto  been  able  to 
cope,  and  that,  too,  only  when  supported  by  a  determined  and  devoted 
people. 

Mr.  Disraeli,  however,  had  overrated  the  strength  of 
his  own  position,  and  the  comparative  force  of  the  dif- 
ferent opinions  which  were  arrayed  against  each  other  in 
the  country.  On  the  one  hand  was  the  strong  Protes- 
tant feeling  of  England  and  Scotland,  and  the  support 
which  might  reasonably  be  expected  from  the  newly 
enfranchised  classes.  On  the  other  lay  the  combined 
armies  of  Nonconformity  and  Popery,  laying  aside 
their  mutual  hostility  as  they  have  done  before  in 
their  common  hatred  of  the  Establishment,  and  both 
backed  up  by  the  rising  strength  of  the  Radicals,  who 
are  naturally  in  favour  of  all  revolutions,  whether  civil 
or  ecclesiastical.  The  event  proved  that  the  latter 
combination  was  the  stronger.  Mr.  Disraeli,  at  the 
Mansion  House  dinner  on  the  9th  of  November,  pre- 
dicted a  victory^  and  boasted  that  the  "  arms  of  precision  '* 


BISBAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.    119 

— whatever  he  may  have  meant  by  the  expression — 
were  on  the  Conservative  side.  He  was  doomed  to 
disappointment,  and  the  verdict  of  the  country  con- 
signed him  once  more  to  five  years  of  opposition. 

On  this  period  of  his  life  we  need  not  linger  long. 
He  did  not  take  a  very  prominent  part  in  the  debates 
on  either  the  Irish  Church  Bill  or  the  Irish  Land  Bill. 
He  had  said  what  he  had  to  say  about  the  Church  in 
his  speech  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  Kesolution,  when  he 
referred  to  the  words  which  he  had  used  in  1844,  and 
which  had  been  turned  against  him  in  the  debate — '*  an 
alien  church,  a  starving  population,  and  an  absentee 
aristocracy.'^  He  said  the  situation  was  changed  now, 
for  the  people  were  no  longer  starving,  and  the  pro- 
prietors were  no  longer  absentees.  As  to  the  alien 
church,  of  course,  he  could  say  nothing,  and  his  views 
on  that  subject  will  be  deferred  to  a  later  chapter. 

During  the  session  of  1869-70,  he  seemed,  in  fact, 
to  be  "  lying  by."  But  the  breaking  out  of  the  French 
and  German  War  in  1870,  and  the  question  of  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium  which  arose  out  of  it,  drew  forth 
from  Mr.  Disraeli,  on  the  1st  of  August,  perhaps  one 
of  the  most  powerful  speeches  on  foreign  affairs  which 
he  ever  delivered.  After  calling  on  the  House  of 
Commons  to  take  note  that  there  were  "  vast  ambitions 
stirring  in  Europe,"  he  went  on  to  remind  it  of  what 
took  place  in  1853,  and  it  is  important  to  quote  these 
words  because  of  what  occurred  in  1876,^  and  because 
of  the  light  which  they  throw  on  what  Mr.  Disraeli 
meant  by  the  "  armed  neutrality,"  which  he  recommended 
England  to  observe.  Admitting  the  advantage  of  pos- 
sessing a  strong  Government  at  such  a  moment,  com- 
posed of  able  and  experienced  men,  he  said  that  in 
*  See  page  140-43. 


120         LIFE  OF  LOMD  BEAC0N8FIELD. 

1853  we  had  a  still  stronger  Government,  composed  of 
still  abler  men,  and  yet  what  happened?  "It  was  at 
this  very  period  of  the  year,  at  the  end  of  July,  that, 
after  two  months  of  hesitation,  Russia  crossed  the 
Pruth,  and  we  have  it  upon  record,  we  have  it  upon 
authoritative  and  authentic  evidence^  that  Russia  would 
not  have  crossed  the  Pruth  had  England  at  that  time 
been  decided  ;  had  she  told  Russia  that  it  was  a  ques- 
tion of  war  with  England.  .  .  .  What  did  it  end  in  ? 
In  the  March  of  next  year  you  had  to  go  to  war  with 
Russia,  because  she  had  crossed  the  Pruth  in  the  pre- 
ceding July,  and  involved  herself  in  war  with  Turkey." 
A  word  in  time  would  have  prevented  the  Crimean  war. 
But  for  a  neutral  power  to  be  able  to  speak  that  word, 
her  neutrality  must  be  an  armed  neutrality.  What  he, 
therefore,  wished  to  impress  upon  the  public  was  that, 
if  we  desired  to  prevent  the  violation  of  the  treaties 
guaranteeing  Luxemburg  and  Belgium,  our  neutrality 
must  be  an  armed  neutrality,  for  it  was  evident  from  the 
secret  treaty  that  both  France  and  Prussia  would  have 
violated  them  without  remorse. 

In  the  following  year,  however,  when  the  two  great 
Irish  measures  had  been  passed,  Mr.  Disraeli  descended 
into  the  arena  again  with  all  his  wonted  vigour.  At  the 
commencement  of  the  session  he  spoke  twice  on  the 
Treaty  of  Paris,"^  with  great  force  and  great  mastery 
of  the  question.  On  the  famous  Westmeath  Com- 
mittee he  attacked  the  Government  with  an  energy  of 
sarcasm  which  reminded  one  of  the  Peelite  period. 

The  right  honourable  gentleman  opposite  (Mr.  Gladstone)  was 
elected  for  a  specific  purpose :  he  was  the  Minister  who  alone  was 

*  Russia  had  announced  her  intention  of  abrogating  of  her  own 
accord  the  article  in  the  Treaty  of  Paris  providing  for  the  neutrali- 
sation of  the  Black  Sea.     Select  Speeches,  vol.  p.  ii.  133. 


BISBAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY,    12 1 

capable  to  cope  with  these  long-enduring  and  mysterious  evils  that 
had  tortured  and  tormented  the  civilisation  of  England.  The  right 
honourable  gentleman  persuaded  the  people  of  England  that  with 
regard  to  Irish  politics  he  was  in  possession  of  the  philosopher's 
stone.  Well,  Sir,  he  has  been  returned  to  this  House  with  an  immense 
majority,  with  the  object  of  securing  the  tranquillity  and  content  of 
Ireland.  Has  anything  been  grudged  him  ?  Time,  labour,  devotion 
— whatever  has  been  demanded  has  been  accorded,  whatever  has  been 
proposed  has  been  carried.  Under  his  influence  and  at  his  instance 
wo  have  legalised  confiscation,  consecrated  sacrilege,  condoned  high 
treason ;  we  have  destroyed  churches,  we  have  shaken  property  to  its 
foundation,  and  we  have  emptied  gaols  ;  and  now  he  cannot  govern  a 
country  without  coming  to  a  parliamentary  committee  I  The  right 
honourable  gentleman,  after  all  his  heroic  exploits,  and  at  the  head 
of  his  great  majority,  is  making  government  ridiculous. 

Mr.  Disraeli  opened  the  Session  of  1872  with  de- 
claring that  during  the  whole  of  the  preceding  autumn 
Ministers  had  lived  in  "  a  blaze  of  apology.^'  And  when 
the  Ballot  Bill  was  introduced  he  declared  that  the  time 
had  gone  by  when  the  country  stood  in  need  of  the 
ballot.  The  Prime  Minister  had,  he  said,  "  passionately 
embraced  a  corpse.^' 

It  was  during  the  Easter  holidays  of  this  year,  1872, 
that  Mr.  Disraeli  paid  a  long-promised  visit  to  Lanca- 
shire, and  delivered  a  long  speech  at  Manchester,  shortly 
after  Mr.  Gladstone  had  been  present  at  a  great  Liberal 
reception  in  the  same  city  ;  a  circumstance  which  fur- 
nished the  subject  of  a  cartoon  to  Punch  illustrating  a 
quotation  from  Bombastes : — 

I  too  have  heard  on  inky  Irwell's  shore 

Another  lion  give  a  louder  roar. 

And  the  first  lion  thought  the  last  a  bore 

The  gist  of  this  speech  lies  in  the  one  sentence. 
"  The  programme  of  the  Conservative  party  is  to  main- 
tain the  institutions  of  the  country.'*     We  have  then 


122         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAGONSFIELB, 

an  exhaustive  consideratiou  of  the  various  component 
parts  of  that  Constitution,  and  the  advantages  of  each, 
especially  of  the  monarchy,  which  had  then  been  recently 
attacked  in  a  lecture  at  Newcastle  by  Sir  Charles 
Dilke.  Some  remarks  on  the  union  of  Church  and  State 
follow;  then  comes  the  condition  of  the  people,  both 
agricultural  and  manufacturing,  with  some  reference  to 
the  doctrines  of  Fenianism  ;  and  the  spe^chjcauiiLades 
with  a  description  of  the  Ministry  and  their  conduct  of 
foreign  affairs,  which,  whatever  its  justice,  will  long 
be  remembered  for  its  felicitous  imagery  and  biting 
satire. 

It  was  in  this  speech  that  the  following  passage 
occurs,  which  really  has  more  literal  truth  in  it  than 
the  jocular  rhetoric  of  Mr.  Disraeli  invariably  pos- 
sessed : — 

But,  gentlemen,  as  time  advanced,  it  was  not  difBcult  to  perceive 
that  extravagance  was  being  substituted  foi'  energy  by  the  Govern- 
ment. The  unnatural  stimulus  was  subsiding.  Their  paroxysms 
ended  in  prostration.  Some  took  refuge  in  melancholy,  and  their 
eminent  chief  alternated  between  a  menace  and  a  sigh.  As  I  sat 
opposite  the  Treasury  Bench  the  Ministers  reminded  me  of  one  of 
those  marine  landscapes  not  very  unusual  on  the  coasts  of  South 
America.  You  behold  a  range  of  exhausted  volcanos.  Not  a  flamis 
flickers  on  a  single  pallid  crest.      But  the  situation  is  still  dangerous. 

This  speech  was  followed  up  by  another  at  the  Crystal 
Palace  on  the  24Lh  of  June,  which  was  in  some  respects 
a  repetition  of  the  former,  laying  down  the  Conservative 
programme  as  the  **  maintenance  of  the  Empire,  the 
preservation  of  our  institutions,  and  the  improvement  of 
the  cbridttidii  of  the  people." 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  it  became  apparent  that 
the  Gladstone  Ministry  had  lost  its  hold  upon  the 
country.     But  **  the  perfect  wife,*'  who  had  cheered  so 


DISRAELI  AS  LEABEB  OF  THE  FAllTY.    123 

many  of  her  husband's  darker  hours,  was  not  spared  to 
witness  the  brilliant  dawn  that  was  at  hand,  "  to  share 
the  triumph  or  partake  the  gale.'*  51rs^Disrael[,  whom 
HerMnjesty  had  created  Lady  Beaconsfield  in  1869,  died 
in  the  winter  of  1872,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  might  almost  have 
said  with  Johnson  that  success  came  to  him  at  last  when 
he  was  old  and  could  not  enjoy  it,  when  he  was  solitary  and 
could  not  impart  it.  Deprived  of  her  active  sympathy, 
he  seems  still,  however,  to  have  been  sustained  by  her 
memory;  and  ceitainly  his  judgment  was  never  more 
conspicuous  than  in  the  Ministerial  crisis  of  1873. 
Defeated  on  the  Dublin  University  Bill  by  a  majority 
of  three,  Mr.  Gladstone  at  once  resigned,  and  Her 
Majesty,  without  a  moment's  delay,  summoned  Mr. 
Disraeli  to  her  councils.  Contrary  to  the  judgment  of 
some  of  his  friends  at  the  time,  he  declined  to  take 
office,  assuring  Her  Majesty  at  the  same  time  that  he 
should  have  no  difficulty  in  constructing  an  Adminis- 
tration, but  that  he  could  not  undertake  to  do  so  with 
the  existing  House  of  Commons.  Nor  did  it  suit  Mr. 
Disraeli  to  take  office  and  dissolve  Parliament.  As  he 
pointed  out  to  the  House  in  his  explanatory  statement, 
a  new  Government  on  coming  into  office  cannot  dis- 
solve at  once.  The  mere  formation  of  the  Ministry  is 
a  work  of  time.  The  time  necessary  for  obtaining  that 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  state  of  our  foreign  relations, 
and  of  our  financial  prospects,  which  is  accessible  only 
to  men  in  office,  and  without  which  an  incoming 
Ministry  can  hardly  appeal  to  the  country  on  any  de- 
finite principles,  is  still  greater.  Practically,  said  Mr. 
Disraeli,  he  should  have  to  finish  the  Session  before  he 
could  dissolve  Parliament,  and  what  would  happen 
in  the  interval  ?  He  knew  only  too  well  from  bitter 
experience. 


124         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAGONSFIELD, 

We  should  have  what  is  called  "  fail'  play,"  that  is  to  say,  no  vote 
of  want  of  confidence  would  be  proposed,  and  chiefly  because  it 
would  be  of  no  use.  There  would  be  no  wholesale  censure,  but  retail 
humiliation.  A  right  honourable  gentleman  will  come  down  here,  he 
will  arrange  his  thumb-screws  and  other  instruments  of  torture  on 
this  table — we  shall  never  ask  for  a  vote  without  a  lecture  ;  we  shall 
never  perform  the  most  ordinary  routine  office  of  government  without 
there  behig  annexed  to  it  some  pedantic  and  ignominious  condition. 

I  wish  to  express  nothing  but  what  I  know  from  painful  personal 
experience.  No  contradiction  of  the  kind  I  have  just  encountered 
could  divest  me  of  the  painful  memory ;  I  wish  it  could.  I  wish  it 
was  not  my  duty  to  take  this  view  of  the  case.  For  a  certain  time  we 
should  enter  into  the  paradise  of  abstract  resolutions.  One  day 
honourable  gentlemen  cannot  withstand  the  golden  opportunity  of 
asking  the  House  to  affirm  that  the  income-tax  should  no  longer  form 
one  of  the  features  of  our  Ways  and  Means.  Of  course  a  proposition 
of  that  kind  would  be  scouted  by  the  right  honourable  gentleman  and 
all  his  colleagues  ;  but  then  they  might  dine  out  that  day,  and  the 
resolvition  might  be  carried,  as  resolutions  of  that  kind  have  been.  Then 
another  honourable  gentleman,  distinguished  for  his  knowledge  of 
men  and  things,  would  move  that  the  diplomatic  service  be  abolished. 
While  honourable  gentlemen  opposite  were  laughing  in  their  sleeves 
at  the  mover,  they  would  vote  for  the  motion  in  order  to  put  the 
Government  into  a  minoi'ity.  For  this  reason.  Why  should  men, 
they  would  say,  govern  the  country  who  are  in  a  minority  ?  totally 
forgetting  that  we  had  acceeded  to  office  in  the  spirit  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, quite  oblivious  of  the  fountain  and  origin  of  the  position  we 
occupied.  And  it  would  go  very  hard  if  on  some  sultry  afternoon 
some  honourable  member  should  not  "  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to 
ti'ead,"  and  successfully  assimilate  the  borough  and  the  county  fran- 
chise. And  so  things  would  go  on  until  the  bitter  end — until  at  last 
even  the  Appropriation  Bill  has  passed.  Parliament  is  dissolved,  and 
we  appeal  to  those  millions  who,  perhaps  six  months  before,  might 
have  looked  upon  us  as  the  vindicators  of  intolerable  grievances,  but 
who  now  receive  us  as  a  defeated,  discredited,  and  degraded  Ministry, 
■vfhose  services  can  be  neither  of  value  to  the  Crown  nor  a  credit  to 
the  nation. 


Mr.  Gladstone  seemed  inclined  to  lay  down  the 
doctrine  that  no  leader  of  Opposition  is  entitled  to  give  a 
vote  calculated  to  defeat  the  Minister  unless  he  is  prepared 
to  take  his  place.     Such  a  doctrine,  if  generally  acted  on^ 


DISRAELI  AS  LEAJDEB  OF  THE  PARTY.    125 

would  make  all  effective  criticism  impossible.  A  states- 
man strong  enough  to  take  the  Minister's  place  would 
not  long  remain  in  Opposition,  and  one  not  strong 
enough  would  have  no  right  to  exercise  the  power  which 
alone  makes  an  Opposition  formidable.  Mr.  Gladstone 
resumed  office,  and  the  session  came  to  a  close  without 
any  further  incident  of  importance. 
l^^n  the  autumn  of  1873  Mr.  Disraeli  was  chosen  Lord 
Hector  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  an  honour  which 
was  renewed  in  1874,  when  he   defeated  Mr.  Emerson 

,.  by  a  majority  of  two  hundred.  The  Tory  party  had 
now  for  the  time  become  the  popular  party  in  the 
country.  Of  that  there  could  be  no  doubt.  The 
measures  of  the  Government  had  produced  consider- 
able irritation  in  the  nation,  which  was  not  dimi- 
nished either  by  their  administrative  failures,^  or  by 
certain  equivocal  transactions,  which  produced  a  great 
sensation  at  the  time,  though  it  is  needless  to  recapitu- 
late them  now. 

The  vague  floating  discontent  thus  gradually  en- 
gendered resulted  in  a  state  of  public  opinion,  to- 
wards the  close  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government, 
which  was  sufficient  to  account  for  its  overthrow, 
even  had  the  nation  been  indifferent  to  Toryism.  But 
it  was  not.  Concurrently  with  the  active  dislike  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  policy, both  foreign  and  domestic,  bad  grown 
up  a  feeling  that  some  injustice  had  been  done  to  the  Con- 

~  servatives.  The  country  had  enjoyed  five  years  for  reflec- 
tion. Efiople  saw  that  after  all  the  Conservatives  had 
been  the   party    which    effected    the   extension   of   the 


*  Mr.  Disraeli's  Bath  letter,  in  which  he  described  the  policy  of  the 
Government  as  one  of  "  plundering  and  blundering,"  -was  thought  no 
exaggeration  at  the  time. 


120         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAGONSFIELD, 

franchise,  let  them  have  thought  ahoutit  what  they  might. 
It  was  brought  home  to  the  working  classes  that  the 
Conservatives  were  the  authors  of  that  beneficent  factory 
legislation  which  theLiberalshad  so  strenuously  resisted, 
and  they  began  to  understand  too  that  Conservative 
principles  of  foreign  policy  might  be  more  advantageous 
to  the  people  than  Liberal  ones.  The  Church  also, 
during  these  five  years,  had  made  great  progress  among 
the  working  classes.  Many  old  prejudices  had  been 
dissipated,  and  many  new  ideas  had  dawned  upon  the 
labouring  population,  when  the  General  Election  of 
1874  revealed  the  fact  that  the  existence  of  the  Con- 
servative working  man  was  not  a  dream. 

Add  to  this  that,  by  skilfully  taking  advantage  of  every 
opportunity  that  occurred,  and  of  every  mistake  committed 
by  his  opponents,  in  order  to  draw  out  those  ingenious  and 
suggestive  contrasts  between  Conservatism  and  Liberal- 
ism, which  for  nearly  thirty  years  formed  so  marked  a 
feature  in  all  his  political  addresses,  Mr.  Disraeli  had  suc- 
ceeded in  disturbing  very  materially  the  vulgar  concep- 
tion of  Toryism  which  had  prevailed  in  England  from 
the  Peace  to  the  middle  of  the  present  century,  and  we 
shall  understand  that  other  causes  were  at  work  besides 
weariness  of  sensational  legislation  to  ensure  the  Con- 
servative victory  of  1874.  Of  the  contrasts  to  which 
rtiference  has  been  made,  though  the  effect  might  be 
heightened  by  that  dexterous  manipulation  of  phrases  in 
which  he  was  so  great  an  adept,  the  foundation  was 
sufficiently  real  to  secure  for  them  a  place  among  the 
recognised  topics  of  the  party ;  and,  though  they  might 
be  too  fine-drawn  for  middle  aged  men  of  business, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  over  the  minds  of  a  younger 
generation,  always  pleased  with  what  is  subtle  and 
adroit,  they  exercised  considerable  influence. 


mSEAELl  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.    127 

Iler  Majesty  dissolved  Parliament  in  January  1874, 
Mr.  Gladstone  promising  the  people  that  if  he  was  again 
returned  to  power  he  would  abolish  the  income  tax.  The 
answer  to  his  appeal  was  a  Conservative  majority  of  fifty. 
The  result  was  largely  due  to  the  actioa  of  theworking- 
classes  in  the  towns,  and  Mr.  Disraeli's  severest  critics 
were  forced  to  admit  that  he  had  taken  the  measure  of 
the  British  workmen  more  accurately  than  themselves. 
The  fact  is,  that  those  who  denied  the  possibility  of  the 
Conservative  working  man,  proceeded  on  the  assump- 
tion that  all  his  instincts  were  selfish.  They  knew 
that  he  had  been  taught  to  associate  cheap  food,  high 
wages,  and  reduced  taxes  with  the  political  creed  re- 
presented by  Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  they 
reasoned  that  no  counter  attraction  could  possibly  be 
strong  enough  to  detach  him  from  the  Liberal  Party. 
The  elections  of  1868,  of  course,  strengthened  the  con- 
viction. But  it  was  seen  in  a  very  short  time  that  such 
views  were  entirely  superficial,  and  that  in  relying  on 
the  existence  of  a  deeper  chord  of  feeling  in  the  work- 
ing classes,  which  would  respond  at  once  to  appeals  of 
a  more  generous  character,  Mr.  Disraeli  had  shown  his 
knowledge  of  human  nature  and  of  English  human;^ 
nature  in  particular.  He  spoke  to  them  of  Eng- 
land ;  of  her  glory  and  her  duty ;  of  the  imperial  in- 
heritance which  their  ancestors  had  won,  and  which 
they  must  transmit  to  their  posterity ;  of  the  proud 
position  which  she  occupied  among  the  nations  of  the 
world,  and  of  the  divine  mission  which  it  was  her  pri- 
vilege to  fulfil  in  the  spread  of  civilisation  arid  religion. 
In  an  age  of  economy  and  materialism,  of  cheap  break- 
fast tables,  and  bread  and  butter  prosperity,  these  ac- 
cents fell  upon  the  public  ear,  long  unaccustomed  to  such 
sounds,  with  thrilling  power.     It  may  be  perfectly  true 


128         LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELD. 

that  in  these  appeals  to  the  popular  imagination,  and  to 
the  poetic  and  romantic  element  of  which  almost  every 
man  has  some  small  share  in  his  composition,  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli was  occasionally  bombastic,  grandiose,  or  turgid^ 
But  through  all  the  gorgeous  vapours  and  fantastic 
shapes  in  which  his  eloquence  occasionally  clothed  itself, 
a  real  truth  was  always  visible,  and  ever  and  anon  flashed 
out  with  startling  and  convincing  brightness.  This  was 
the  secret  of  Mr.  Disraeli's  power  with  the  masses  :  and 
that  they  should  not  understand  it  who  believed  that  the 
people  of  England  were  incapable  of  rising  to  any  loftier 
conception  of  national  life  than  had  been  propounded 
by  the  Manchester  school,  was  natural  enough. 

It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Disraeli,  even 
when  he  could  not  secure  the  votes,  always  commanded 
the  admiration  of  the  English  people.  They  liked  his 
pluck,  his  humour,  his  cynicism,  his  audacious  eccen- 
tricity, and  the  blows  he  had  levelled  at  the  '*  big-wigs.'* 
They  regarded  him,  at  the  same  time,  as  a  man  of  the 
people,  whose  escutcheon  was  his  pen,  and  who  had 
lought  his  own  way  to  greatness  and  power  through 
tremendous  obstacles. 

Thus,  from  whatever  point  of  view  he  was  regarded, 
whether  judged  by  his  opinions,  his  character,  or  his 
history,  personally,  politically,  or  socially,  he  was  emi- 
nently an  interesting  man.  And  the  interest  which  he 
excited  himself  was  communicated  in  some  measure  to 
the  party  of  which  he  was  the  leader.  Toryism  began 
to  appear  the  more  picturesque  creed  of  the  two.  The 
people  were  tired  of  the  whitey-brown  monotony  of 
middle-class  Liberalism.  "  I  'm  all  for  the  nobs,"  says 
the  factory  girl  in  ^yhily  "  if  we  can't  have  our  own 
man."  And  the  sentiment  is  perfectly  natural. 
Toryism   and  Socialism    have   this   in   common,   at  all 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY,     129 

events,  that  they  both  lift  us  out  of  the  region  of  the 
commonplace,  and  appeal  to  ideas,  though  the  conclu- 
Vioris'derived  from  them  may  be  absolutely  contradic- 
tory of  each  other. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Gladstone  saw  that  the  elections  left 
him  no  hope  of  a  majority,  he  followed  Mr.  Disraeli's 
example  in  1868,  and  hastened  to  resign  his  office, 
without  waiting  for  the  meeting  of  Pariiament.  Mr. 
Disraeli  was  now  commissioned  by  the  Queen  once  more 
to  undertake  the  task  of  forming  a  Conservative  Admi-s^ 
nistration. 

■*-  Melioribus  opto 

Auspiciis,  et  quae  fuerit  minus  obvia  Graiis. 

He  received  Her  Majesty's  commands  on  the  18th  of 
February,  and  in  about  three  weeks  all  his  arrange- 
ments were  completed.  The  following  composed  the 
Cabinet : — 

Mr.  Disraeli,  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury. 
Lord  Cairns,  Lord  Chancellor. 
The  Duke  of  Richmond,  President  of  the  Council. 
The  Earl  of  Malmesbury,  Privy  Seal. 
The  Earl  of  Derby,  Foreign  Secretary. 
Marquis  of  Salisbury,  Secretary  for  India. 
Earl  of  Carnarvon,  Colonial  Secretary. 
Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy,  Secretary  for  War. 
Mr.  R.  A.  Cross,  Home  Secretary. 
Mr.  Ward  Hunt,  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 
Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  Chancellor  of  the  Exche- 
quer. 
Lord  John  Manners,  Postmaster-General. 

Among  the  members  not  in  the  Cabinet,  Mr.  Disraeli 
found  efficient  colleagues  in  Lord  Sandon,  Mr.  Sclater 

9 


130  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BFACONSFIELB. 

Booth,  Mr.  Clare  Sewell  Read,  Lord  George  Hamilton, 
and  Mr.  Bourke. 

He  had  now,  as  it  seemed,  a  fair  chance  of  realising 
some  of  Tiis  favourite  ideasrTTls  true,  he  was  sixty- 
eight  years  of  age.  But  he  was  seven  years  younger  than 
Lord  Palmerston  when  he  became  Prime  Minister  for 
the  second  time  in  1859,  and  a  year  younger  than  Lord 
Aberdeen  when  he  went  to  the  Treasury  in  1853.  He 
Imd  always  been  considered  a  man  of  vigorous  constitu- 
tion, and  his  frame  was  well  built  and  robust.  Yet 
certain  it  is  that  no  sooner  was  he  in  office  than  he 
seemed  rather  disposed  to  rest  upon  his  laurels,  and 
leave  the  active  work  of  legislation  to  his  colleagues. 
Unfortunately  for  himself,  however,  he  had  not  been  in 
office  more  than  two  months  before  a  Bill  was  introduced 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  which  affected  Mr. 
Disraeli  during  the  whole  remainder  of  his  life.  This 
was  the  Public  Worship  Regulation  Bill,  which  was 
brought  in  on  the  20th  of  April,  and  read  a  third  time 
in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  25th  of  June.  In  the 
House  of  Commons  the  measure  was  enirusted  to  Mr. 
Russell  Gurney,  and  it  was  uncertain  almost  to  the  last 
moment  which  side  Mr.  Disraeli  would  espouse.  So 
far  the  Government  had  treated  it  as  an  open  question ; 
and  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  the  new  Secretary  of 
State  for  India,  had  not  concealed  his  dislike  of  it.  In 
the  House  of  Commons,  Mr.  Hardy  (Lord  Cranbrook), 
spoke  in  the  same  strain;  and  it  was  not  till  Mr. 
Disraeli  rose  on  the  ISth  of  July  that  the  Anti- 
Ritualists  knew  what  a  powerful  ally  they  were  to  find. 
We  read  in  the  Life  of  Bishop  Wilherforce  that  the 
Prime  Minister  only  made  up  his  mind  to  support  the 
measure  on  the  morning  of  the  day  when  informed  that 
all  the  Bishops  were  in  favour  of  it,  and  that  if  it  was 


BISBAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.    131 

,j:ejected,  disestablishment  must  very  speedily  follow. 
His  first  impulse  was  to  oppose  it ;  and  had  he  been  the 
Mr.  Disraeli  of  Conine/shy  and  Syhil  he  certainly  would 
have  done  so.  As  it  was,  he  made  the  unfortunate  decla- 
ration that  this  was  a  Bill  "  to  put  down  "  Ritualism, 
and  that  he  intended  to  support  it  with  that  object. 
These  words  were  remembered  against  him  to  the  day  of 
his  death,  and  made  him  enemies  among  the  clergy, 
who  had  only  too  many  opportunities  of  influencing  the 
popular  vote.  In  reality  Mr.  Disraeli  meant  no  harm. 
He  was  very  careful  to  distinguish  between  the  High 
Church,  of  which  he  spoke  in  terms  of  high  eulogy, 
and  the  Ritualist  party,  which  he  conceived  to  be  an 
excresence  from  it,  small  in  point  of  numbers  and  ability, 
and  deliberately  adopting  practices  symbolical  of  those 
Romish  doctrines  which  the  Church  of  England  has 
condemned.  This  is  what  he  meant.  That  he  did  not 
understand  Ritualism  is  more  than  probable.  But  the 
Ritualists  did  not  choose  to  accept  this  hypothesis  in 
extenuation  of  the  offence  which  he  had  given  them ; 
and  remained  his  bitter  enemies  to  the  last. 

It  is  neither  necessary  nor  possible  to  discuss  at  any 
length  the  series  of  domestic  measures  passed  by  Mr. 
Disraeli's  Administration  during  its  six  years'  lease  of 
office.  When  he  laid  down  that  one  of  the  cardinal 
doctrines  of  the  Conservative  policy  was  the  improve- 
ment of  the  condition  of  the  people  he  was  thoroughly 
in  earnest.  In  the  speech  at  Manchester  in  1872,  to 
which  I  have  already  referred,  occurs  the  sanitas  sanita- 
turn  omnia  i^anitas,  which  one  of  his  oponents  soon  after 
derided  as  "a policy  of  sewage."  Mr.  Disraeli  retorted  on 
him  in  his  speech  at  the  Crystal  Palace  with  merited 
severity,  pointing  out  how  deeply  interested  the  working 
classes  were  in  this  matter,  and  promising  the  honour- 

9  ♦ 


132         LIFE  OF  LOUD  BFACONSFIELD. 

able  gentleman  that  the  laugh  would  soon  be  turned, 
against  himself.  Accordingly  when  he  came  into  office 
he  lost  no  time  in  fulfilling  the  pledges  which  he  had 
\  given  in  Opposition  ;  and  between  1874  and  1879  he 
placed  upon  the  Statute  BooE  no  less  than  fifteen  Acts 
of  Parliament,  all  directed  to  the  benefit  of  the  public 
health,  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  poor, 
'^-^-and  the  removal  of  the  special  grievances  under  which 
"they  believed  themselves  to  be  suflfering.  These  are  the 
Factories  Act  and  the  Licensing  Act  (1874),  the  Con- 
spiracy and  Protection  to  Property  Act,  the  Masters  and 
Workman's  Act,  the  Artizans'  Dwellings  Act,  the  Public 
Health  Act,  the  Friendly  Societies  Act  (1875),  the 
Commons  Act,  the  Pollution  of  Rivers  Act,  tlie  Mer- 
cantile Shipping  Act  (1876),  the  Canal  Boats  Act,  and 
Poor  Law  Amendment  Act  (1877),  the  Factories  and 
Workshops  Act,  the  Cattle  Diseases  Act  (1878),  and  the 
Artizans'  Dwellings  Act  Amendment  Act  (1879). 

To  the  farmers  he  gave  the  Agricultural  Holdings 
Act,  which  changed  the  presumption  of  law  in  favour 
of  the  tenant,  though  it  was  forgotten  in  subsequent 
discussions  that  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  always  spoke  of 
it  as  an  experiment,  which  could  be  amended  afterwards 
if  necessary.  To  the  local  ratepayers  he  afforded  a 
large  instalment  of  that  relief  to  which  he  had  admitted 
them  to  be  entitled  ;  while  our  system  of  local  admini- 
stration was  greatly  improved  by  the  Rating  Act, 
the  Highways  Act,  and  the  Prisons  Act,  of  which  the 
first  seem  to  have  given  general  satisfaction, 
though  it  must  be  owned  that  some  clauses  of  the  last 
interfere  more  than  was  desirable  with  that  local 
authority  and  jurisdiction  which  Mr.  Disraeli  himself 
was  always  so  anxious  to  maintain. 

Two  efforts  were  made  to  reform  our  whole  system  of 


JDISUA  ELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY,     133 

county  government  on  a  very  much  larger  scale,  by  the 
establishment  of  "  County  Boards,"  and  two  Bills  were 
brought  in  by  Mr.  Sclater  Booth,  the  present  Lord 
Basing,  with  that  object.  Both,  however,  were  with- 
drawn, as  the  time  was  not  ripe  for  a  compromise 
between  the  supporters  of  the  existing  system,  and 
those  who  would  subvert  it  altogether;  and  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli was  not  destined  to  add  the  settlement  of  this 
very  important  question — more  important  than  it 
seems  at  first  sight — to  the  list  of  his  achievements. 
But  his  Ministry,  on  the  whole,  can  show  a  record  of 
social  legislation  which  will  contrast  very  favourably 
with  that  of  any  other  Government  during  the  present 
century.  Many  of  these  measures  were  warmly  appre- 
ciated by  the  working  classes.  Mr.  Macdonald,  the 
working  class  member  for  Stafford,  spoke  to  that  effect, 
>and  the  prosy  details  of  ordinary  politics  are  lighted 
up  for  the  moment  with  a  gleam  of  real  poetic  interest 
as  we  think  of  tbe  author  of  St/Oil  being  publicly 
thanked  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  the  representa- 
tives of  Labour. 

In  the  field  of  education  a  measure  was  carried 
through  by  Lord  Sandon  to  amend  some  of  those 
provisions  in  the  Act  of  1870,  which  pressed  unjustly 
on  denominational  schools,  and  some  educational 
measures  for  Ireland  can  also  be  added  to  the  list. 
But  the  chief  Bill  of  this  description  was  the  Universities 
Bill,  intended  to  meet  the  views  of  that  class  of  Uni- 
versity Keformers  who  desired  to  see  the  restoration  of 
university  teaching,  as  distinct  from  the  collegiate  or 
tutorial  system  ;  and  likewise  to  encourage  among 
resident  members  the  pursuit  of  learning  and  scholar- 
ship for  their  own  sakes.  To  make  Oxford  a  centre 
of  learning,  as  well  as  a  great  seat  of  education,  was 


134  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

the  object  of  the  new  school,  and  they  had  the  sym- 
pathies of  Mr.  Disraeli,  or,  as  we  must  now  call  him, 
Lord  Beaconsfieid,  on  their  side.  Opinions  may  differ 
with  regard  to  the  operation  of  the  new  system,  but 
nobody  can  doubt  that  it  was  honestly  intended  to  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  literature  and  culture,  or  that  it 
had  the  warm  approval  of  a  statesmen  who  used  to 
boast  that  he  was  born  in  a  library. 

The  chief  ecclesiastical  questions  with  which  the 
Ministry  of  1874-80  will  be  remembered,  besides  the 
Public  Worship  Kegulation  Bill,  are  the  Abolition  of 
Lay  Patronage  in  Scotland  in  1874,  the  Bishoprics 
Bills  of  1877  and  1878,  and  the  attempt  made  by  Lord 
Salisbury  in  the  House  of  Lords  to  settle  the  Burials 
Question.  The  two  Bishoprics  Bills,  in  conformity  with 
which  the  six  new  sees  of  Truro,  St.  Albans,  Liverpool, 
Southwell,  Newcastle,  and  Wakefield  have  been  erected,* 
were  described  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  as 
the  greatest  ecclesiastical  reform  since  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  the  Church  of  England  may  venerate  the 
memory  of  Lord  Beaconsfieid  for  this  good  action,  at 
all  events,  if  for  no  other.  Here,  too,  he  was  only 
pursuing  when  in  office  the  policy  he  had  sketched  in 
opposition,  an  extension  of  the  Episcopate  having  been 
recommended  by  him  fifteen  years  before  the  time  when 
he  was  actually  able  to  undertake  it. 

The  attempt  to  settle  the  Burials  question  in  1876 
was  unfortunately  frustrated  by  the  action  of  the  late 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Dr.  Tait,  who,  by  suddenly 
accepting  an  amendment  moved  by  Lord  Harrovvby, 
compelled  the  Government  to  abandon  the  measure. 
But  we  may  fairly  doubt  whether,  had  it  become  law, 
the  agitation  would  have  been  permanently  quelled. 

Last  but  not  least  on  our  list  is  the  Act  of  Parliament 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY,    135 

by  which  Mr.  Disraeli  has  linked  his  name  for  ever  with 
the  style  and  dignity  of  the  English  monarchy.  The 
Royal  Titles  Act,  enabling  Her  Majesty  to  assume  the 
title  of  Empress  of  India,  was  passed  in  the  Session  of 
1876,  and  was  resisted  by  the  Opposition  with  a  degree 
of  warmth  which  at  this  distance  of  time  appears  abso- 
lutely childish.  Mr.  Lowe,  the  present  Lord  Sher- 
brooke,  made  himself  particularly  conspicuous  in 
declaiming  against  it,  and  actually  stated,  in  a  speech 
made  at  Retford  during  the  Easter  recess,  that  the 
Queen  had  solicited  two  previous  Prime  Ministers  for 
the  same  title,  and  that  both  had  refused  to  recommend 
it;  but  that  now,  having  found  a  more  pliant  instru- 
ment, she  had  succeeded  in  her  object.  It  can  readily 
be  understood  how  Mr.  Disraeli  handled  this  atrocious 
fiction,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  Mr.  Lowe  was  com- 
pelled to  apologise,  and  to  acknowledge  that  his  reference 
to  the  Queen  was  a  breach  of  parliamentary  decorum. 

Before  passing  on  to  the  foreign  policy  of  Lord 
Beaconsfield's  Government,  we  must  remind  our  readers 
that  on  the  12th  of  August  1876  it  ijecame  known  to 
the  public  that  Mr.  Disraeli's  place  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  which  he  had  played  so  great  a  part 
for  nearly  forty  years,  would  know  him  no  more.  His 
health  and  strength  seemed  no  longer  equal  to  the 
daily-increasing  labour  of  leading  the  popular  as- 
sembly, though  high  medical  authorities  have  hazarded 
the  conjecture  that  by  retiring  from  it  when  he  did,  he 
rather  shortened  his  life  than  prolonged  it.  Had  he 
retired  ten  years  sooner,  says  the  leading  medical  journal 
of  the  day,  he  might  have  experienced  great  benefit  from 
the  change.  As  it  was,  it  came  too  late  :  when  constant 
excitement  would,  perhaps,  have  sustained  his  vital 
energies  longer  than  comparative  repose. 


13C         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAG0N8FIELD. 

On  tlie  11th  of  August  he  delivered  his  last  speech 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  under  circumstiinces 
which  may,  perhaps,  have  suggested  to  his  mind  a 
striking  contrast  to  his  first.  The  House  now  hung 
with  rapt  attention  on  every  word  that  fell  from  him  ; 
and  on  this  occasion  they  were,  as  it  was  fitting  they 
should  be,  words  of  no  ordinary  weight.  "We  are 
always  treated,"  he  said,  "  as  if  we  had  some  pecu- 
liar alliance  with  the  Turkish  Government,  as  if  we 
were  their  peculiar  friends,  and  expected  to  uphold 
them  in  any  enormity  they  might  commit."  There 
was  not  one  jot  or  one  tittle  of  evidence  to  support  such 
an  assumption.  **  We  are,  it  is  true,  the  allies  of  the 
Sultan  of  Turkey  ;  but  so  is  Austria,  so  is  Russia,  so 
is  France.  We  are  also  their  partners  in  a  Tripartite 
Treaty,^  in  which  we  not  only  generally  but  singly, 
guarantee  the  integrity  of  Turkey.  These  are  our  en- 
gagements, and  engagements  which  we  endeavour  to 
fulfil ;  and  if  these  engagements,  renovated  and  repeated 
only  four  years  ago  by  the  wisdom  of  Europe,  are  to 
be  treated  by  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  f 
as  idle  wind  and  chaff,  and  we  are  to  be  told  that  our 
political  duty  is  to  expel  the  Turks  by  force  to  the  other 
side  of  the  Bosphorus,  then  politics  ceases  to  be  an  art, 
statesmanship  becomes  a  mere  mockery,  and  the  House 
of  Commons,  instead  of  being  faithful  to  its  traditions, 
had  better  resolve  itself  into  one  of  those  revolutionary 
clubs  which  settle  all  political  and  social  questions  with 
as  much  ease  as  the  honourable  and  learned  gentle- 
man himself." 

Next  day  the  secret  \;as  out,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  ex- 
changed the  name  by  which  he  had  been  known  to  the 

*  1866.  t  Sir  W.  Harcourt. 


LISBAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.    137 

public  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  the  place  endeared  to 
him  by  a  thousand  interesting  and  elevating  associations, 
for  the  title  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  and  the  leadership  of 
the  House  of  Lords. 

The  foreign  policy  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  will  be  j 
judged,  of  course,  by  his  policy  on  the  Eastern  Ques-  ' 
tion.  The  Indian  and  African  troubles  which  arose  , 
during  his  administration  were  provincial  and  colonial,  / 
not  foreign  ;  and  no  other  European  question  troubled  / 
the  horizon  between  1874  and  1880.  / 

It  was  a  fixed  idea,  not  only  with  Lord  Beaconsfield,' 
but  with  a  large  poition  of  the  British  people,  that 
since  the  death  of  Lord  Palmerston,  England  had  lost 
her  old  place  among  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  that 
the  great  Powers  of  the  Continent  were  inclined  to  take 
very  little  account  of  her  in  considering  the  forces  with 
which  they  had  to  reckon  in  the  execution  of  their  own 
plans.  The  paramount  necessity  of  convincing  them  >. 
that  England  was  still  the  England  of  Palmerston,  I 
Canning,  and  Pitt,  weighed,  perhaps,  with  Lord  Beacons-  / 
field  almost  as  much  as  the  duty  of  defending  British 
interests.  But  it  may  come  to  be  suspected  hereafter 
that  the  demeanour  of  the  Opposition  was  more  to 
blame  for  the  encouragement  which  it  gave  to  Russia> 
than  the  policy  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  for  the  encourage- 
ment which  it  gave  to  Turkey. 

The  Eastern  Question,  which  Lord  Beaconsfield's  evil 
genius  called  up  to  trouble  him  in  his  declining  years, 
occupied  the  attention  of  England  and  of  Europe  for 
about  three  years — that  is,  from  July  1875  _ to  July 
1878.  It  was  in  the  summer  of  the  first-mentioned 
year  that  disturbances  had  broken  out  in  the  Euro- 
pean provinces  of  Turkey,  but  it  was  not  till  late  in 
the  autumn   that  they  seemed  likely  to  lead  to  serious 


138  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIFLD. 

results.  Lord  Beaconsfield,  however,  wns  one  of  the  first 
to  appreciate  their  importance.  On  the  9th  of  November 
he  told  his  audience  in  the  Guildhall  that  they  might 
be  fraught  with  very  critical  consequences.  And  so 
they  were.  The  first  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Powers 
to  aid  in  composing  these  disturbances  was  made  through 
Count  Andrassy,  the  Austrian  foreign  minister,  who 
proposed  a  scheme  of  administrative  reform  to  the 
Porte  which  the  revolted  provinces  migljt  accept.  This 
came  to  nothing,  chiefly,  as  Lord  Beaconsfield  said, 
because  it  was  **  inopportune " ;  in  other  words,  be- 
cause a  country  plunged  in  bankruptcy,  as  Turkey  then 
was,  and  struggling  with  almost  insuperable  financial 
difficulties,  was  not  in  a  position  to  carry  out  a  great 
scheme  of  administrative  reform. 

England  signed  the  Note,  but  expected  very  little  from 
it.  The  project  fell  through,  and  the  insurrection  con- 
tinued with  varying  success ;  till  at  length,  in  the  follow- 
ing May  1876,  the  Berlin  Memorandum  was  drawn  up, 
calling  on  Turkey,  more  imperatively  and  menacingly 
than  in  the  Andrassy  Note,  to  undertake  these  reforms. 
To  this  Memorandum  England  refused  to  be  a  party, 
because,  as  Lord  Beaconsfield  explained,  in  case  these 
reforms  were  not  executed  within  a  given  time,  it  im- 
plied the  right  of  the  Powers  to  enforce  them  by  armed 
intervention,  a  right  which  Lord  Beaconsfield  repudiated 
as  a  violation  of  those  treaty  engagements  which  had 
been  solemnly  renewed  and  sanctioned  so  recently  as 
1871.  Lord  Beaconsfield  was  treading  exactly  in  the 
footsteps  of  both  Mr.  Canning  and  the  Duke  of 
Wellington.  His  language  on  the  Berlin  Memorandum 
might  have  been  taken  direct  from  some  of  Canning's 
despatches  on  the  Greek  Question  in  1826  and 
1827. 


JDISBAELI  AS  LEALEB  OF  TEE  PARTY.    139 

In  the  meantime,  however,  reports  had  been  brought 
to  this  country,  grossly  exaggerated  as  they  after- 
wards turned  out  to  be,  of  the  cruellies  and  outrages 
of  the  Turkish  irregular  troops  in  suppressing  the 
rebellion.  **  The  Bulgarian  Atrocities  "  were  taken  up 
by  the  Leaders  of  the  Opposition,  and  flaming  speeches 
delivered  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to  the  other, 
denouncing  alike  the  ruffians  who  committed  them,  the 
Turks  who  connived  at  them,  and  our  own  Government 
who  were  loudly  accused  of  laughing  at  them.  A  speech 
delivered  by  Mr.  Disraeli  on  the  26th  of  June  was 
twisted  into  the  most  absurd  perversion  of  its  natural 
meaning.  Referring  to  the  tortures  alleged  to  have 
been  inflicted  on  Bulgarian  prisoners,  the  Prime 
Minister  merely  said  he  was  inclined  to  doubt  the  truth 
of  these  stories,  because  among  the  Turks  "  a  more  ex- 
peditious mode  of  business  was  generally  adopted." 
These  words  were  instantly  seized  upon  by  a  school  of 
writers  and  talkers  in  this  country  who  have  done  more 
to  make  earnestness  ridiculous  than  a  whole  legion  of 
cynics,  and  held  np  to  public  execration  as  a  specimen 
of  cold-blooded  iiivolity.  The  country  rang  with 
furious  denunciations  of  the  savages  in  Turkey  and 
their  sympathisers  in  Downing  Street,  which  unques- 
tionably had  the  eflect  of  prolonging  the  resistance  of 
the  insurgents,  and  especially  of  the  Servians,  who  con- 
tinued in  arms  till  the  following  October.  Then  came 
the  Russian  Ultimatum  demanding  an  armistice,  which 
the  Porte  granted,  and  then  the  Conference  of  Constan- 
tinople in  December,  which  Lord  Salisbury  attended 
as  Plenipotentiary,  but  which  proved  abortive  as  all 
foresaw,  the  Turks  steadily  refusing  to  accept  a  High 
Commission  nominated  by  foreigners  to  carry  out 
internal  reforms  in  the  Turkish  Empire. 


140         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAGONSFIELD. 

The  whole  account  of  the  negotiations  and  trans- 
actions of  the  year  1876  is  to  be  found  in  an  admirably 
clear  and  concise  form  in  Lord  Beaconsfield's  Guildhall 
speech  on  the  9th  of  November,  where  we  find  stated 
more  plainly  than  elsewliere  the  real  reason  of  his 
refusal  to  accept  the  Berlin  Memorandum. 

So  matters  went  on  till  the  following  March,  when 
finaMy  a  Protocol  was  drawn  up  and  signed  by  the  Great 
Powers,  expressing  a  hope  that,  peace  now  being:  restored, 
Turkey  would  at  length  set  about  the  business  of  reform 
in  good  earnest.  *'  The  Powers/'  it  was  said,  *'  propose 
to  watch  carefully  the  manner  in  which  the  promises  of 
the  Ottoman  Government  are  carried  into  effect ;  and  if 
their  hopes  should  once  more  be  disappointed  .  .  . 
they  reserve  to  themselves  to  consider  in  common  as  to 
the  means  which  they  may  deem  best  fitted  to  secure 
the  well-being  of  the  Christian  population  and  the  in- 
terests of  the  general  peace."  These  are  nearly  the 
terms  of  the  Treaty  of  London  of  1827  ;  and  two  things 
things  are  clear  from  them  :  one  that  Turkey  was  to  be 
allowed  some  time  for  carrying  out  these  reforms,  which 
in  her  then  financial  state  could  not  be  effected  in  a 
day;  the  other,  that  should  it  ever  become  necessary 
for  the  Powers  to  take  further  action,  they  must  do  so 
'*  in  common."  This  condition  was  in  accordance  with 
the  Treaties  of  1856  and  1871.     But  what  followed  ? 

Three  weeks  afterwards  Russia  declared  war  against 
Turkey,  of  her  own  accord,  without  either  consulting 
her  co-signatories,  or  giving  any  further  notice  to  the 
Porte.  A  more  flagrant  insult  to  the  other  Powers,  or 
a  clearer  violation  of  the  law  of  nations,  can  scarcely 
be  imagined.  Lord  Derby,  on  the  1st  of  May,  wrote 
an  indignant  despatch  to  the  Russian  Government, 
characterising  its    conduct   as    it    deserved.     But   the 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     141 

English  Government  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
treat  it  as  a  casus  belli. 
___  Lord  Beaconstield  always  kept  before  his  mind  two 
great  principles  of  foreign  policy ;  first,  that  no 
,engngemenjtby^--wMckali_Uie  members  of  an  alliance 
jire  equally  bound  can  be  set  aside  by  one  without  the 
consent  of  all  the  rest ;  secondly,  that  every  State  must 
be  held  to  be  the  judge  of  its  own  interests,  and  has  a 
right  to  interfere  between  belligerents  when  those  in- 
terests are  threatened.  The  violation  of  the  first  of 
these  principles  justifies  any  one  of  the  contracting 
Powers  in  armed  interference,  but  does  not  impose  it 
as  a  duty  unless  the  others  are  prepared  to  join  in  / 
it.  As  regards  the  second,  States  as  well  as  in- 
dividuals are  bound  by  the  rule  of  law  so  to  use 
their  own  as  not  to  injure  what  belongs  to  others  ; 
and  accordingly  Lord  Beaconsfield  informed  Russia, 
when  the  war  broke  out,  that  the  neutrality  of  England 
must  be  '*  conditional  neutrality,''  dependent  on  the 
observance  of  this  rule  by  the  belligerents.  As  soon 
as  it  was  set  at  defiance  by  the  Treaty  of  San 
Stephano,  which  became  known  in  England  at  the 
beginning  of  March  1878,  he  took  immediate  steps 
for  recalling  Russia  to  the  due  observance  of  her 
obligations.  He  insisted  that  the  Treaty  should  be 
laid  before  the  other  Powers,  that,  in  the  words  of  the 
Protocol,  they  should  consider  it  "  in  common,"  and 
that  the  pacification  of  Eastern  Europe  should  be  the 
work  of  all. 

English    interests    being    seriously    menaced    at    the 
same  time.  Lord    Beaconsfield  did  not   hesitate    for  a    \ 
moment  to  inform  the  Russian  Government  that,  with 
or  without  allies,  England   was  resolved  to  go  to  war 
unless   these    terms    were  immediately  complied   with. 


142  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

Kussia  paused  in  her  path,  and  "  stared  with  her  foot 
on  the  prey. '^  Lord  Beaconsfield  called  out  the  Reserves, 
and  a  division  of  our  Indian  Army  was  ordered  to  the 
Mediterranean.  Then  Russia  saw  we  were  in  earnest, 
and  loosened  her  grip  upon  the  victim.  By  our 
steady  and  determined  attitude,  the  rights  of  Europe 
had  been  vindicated,  and  the  interests  of  England  se- 
cured; and  since  the  first  heat  of  factious  opposition 
has  subsided,  the  wisdom  and  courage  displayed  by 
Lord  Beaconsfield  at  this  particular  crisis  has  been 
universally  acknowledged.  It  cost  him  the  services 
of  two  of  his  most  able  colleagues.  Lord  Derby  and 
Lord  Carnarvon,  who  thought  that  the  object  to 
be  gained  was  not  worth  the  risk  we  ran  of  being  plunged 
into  a  war  with  Russia.  Lord  Beaconsfield  probably  did 
not  think  the  risk  so  great.  England,  he  said,  at  the 
Lord  Mayor's  dinner  to  which  I  have  already  referred, 
if  compelled  to  go  to  war,  will  not  be  obliged  to  ask 
herself  whether  she  can  bear  a  second  or  a  third  cam- 
paign. He  knew  at  the  same  time  that  this  was  a 
question  which  Russia  would  be  obliged  to  ask  herself. 
And  it  is  more  than  probable  that  after  the  Shipka  Pass 
and  the  siege  of  Plevna  had  told  their  tale  on  the  in- 
vaders, the  first  redcoat  that  set  foot  in  Bulgaria  would 
have  been  the  signal  for  Russia  to  recross  the  Danube. 

Of  course  there  were  other  contingencies  to  be 
taken  into  consideration,  but  so  there  always  will 
be  in  every  dispute  in  which  we  may  be  entangled 
with  Russia.  And,  at  all  events.  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  policy  succeeded.  Russia  was  compelled  to 
give  way,  Constantinople  was  again  saved,  and  the 
Turkish  Empire  in  Europe,  though  shorn  of  its  ori- 
ginal proportions,  was  still  a  fact.  The  "calm  pride 
of  England,"  which  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold   notices   in 


DISEAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     143 

the  despatches  of  Lord  Grenville,  had  again  done  its 
work. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  complained  that  the  doctrine  of 
English  interests  had  been  stigmatised  as  selfish.  It  is, 
he  said,  *'  as  selfish  as  patriotism,"  and  I  may  here 
perhaps  be  allowed  to  introduce  a  letter  of  Mr.  Can- 
ning's on  the  same  subject  which  on  the  5th  of  Novem- 
ber 1822  he  wrote  to  Sir  Charles  Bagot,  our  ambassador 
at  Constantinople,  **  You  know  my  politics  well  enough 
to  know  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  for  Europe  I  shall 
be  desirous  now  and  then  to  read  England^ 

As  soon  as  Russia  had  agreed  to  submit  the  Treaty 
of  San  Stephano  to  a  European  Council — a  conces- 
sion, be  it  remembered,  extorted  from  her  exclusively; 
by  Lord  Beaconsfield — it  was  arranged  that  a  Con- 
gress should  assemble  at  Berlin,  whither  accordingly 
Lord  Beaconsfield  and  Lord  Salisbury  repaired  about 
the  middle  of  the  month  of  June  1878.  Of  the 
Treaty  of  San  Stephano,  and  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin 
which  superseded  it,  I  can  only  say  in  other  words 
what  has  already  been  said  so  often  that  the  world, 
I  fear,  is  weary  of  the  subject.  By  the  first  of 
these  treaties,  extorted  from  the  Turk  with  a  halter 
round  his  neck,  Turkey  in  Europe  was  virtually 
annihilated,  and  a  new  and  independent  province  of 
Bulgaria  (the  *' big  Bulgaria^')  was  constituted,  ex- 
tending from  the  Danube  to  the  ^Egean,  and  stretching 
inland  to  the  western  boundaries  of  Macedonia.  It  left 
only  a  narrow  strip  of  coast-Jine  to  Turkey,  Constanti- 
nople being  thus  completely  cut  off*  from  the  outly- 
ing provinces  of  Bosnia  and  the  Herzegovina;  and  as 
the  new  province  was  to  be  placed  entirely  under  the 
control  of  Russia,  it  was  clear  that  from  the  moment 
this  Treaty  became  law,  Russia  would  be  mistress  of  the 


144  LIFE  OF  LOBB  BEACONSFIFLD. 

Balkan  provinces  and  the  Biack  Sea,  with  a  firm  hold 
on  the  -^gean  at  the  same  time,  the  Sultan  being  left 
only,  as  a  writer  of  the  day  expressed  himself,  with  a 
palace  and  a  garden. 

There  were  other  provisions  in  the  Treaty  of  a 
very  mischievous  and  menacing  tendency.  But  the 
"big  Bulgaria"  was  the  real  giant  to  be  slain,  and 
it  was  soon  found,  when  boldly  confronted,  that  if  his 
head  was  of  brass  his  feet  were  only  of  clay.  Jhe 
Congress  of  Berlin  simply  tore  the  Treaty  up;  and 
whoever  wishes  to  understand  the  magnitude  of  the 
change  which  it  effected  should  consult  two  speeches  of 
Lord  Beaconsfield's  :  one  delivered  soon  after  his  return 
from  Germany,  on  the  18th  of  July  1878,  and  another 
in  reply  to  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  on  the  16th  of  May 
1879.  The  general  results  may  be  briefly  summarized 
as  follows: — The  Bulgaria  of  San  Stephano  extended 
from  Widdin  to  Salonica,  from  Mangalia  to  Mount 
Grammes.  It  completely  cut  off,  as  we  have  pointed 
out,  the  seat  of  Government  in  Turkey  from  the  out- 
lying provinces.  It  handed  over  large  populations  of 
Greeks  and  Mussulmans  to  Sclav  rule,  it  strangled  the 
small  districts  left  to  the  Turks  about  Constantinople  in 
its  embraces.  It  contained  50,000  square  miles,  and  a 
population  of  four  millions.  Its  definitive  frontiers 
were  to  be  traced  by  a  Kusso-Turkish  Commission, 
before  the  evacuation  of  Eoumelia  by  the  Russian  army. 
The  Bulgaria  constituted  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin 
embraces  an  area  of  but  20,000  square  miles,  and  a 
population  of  about  a  million  and  a  half.  It  is  thrust 
back  more  than  a  hundred  miles  from  the  iEgean,  it 
loses  the  valuable  port  of  Bourgas  on  the  Black  Sea — the 
only  safe  port  in  that  sea — and  is  separated  from 
Turkey   by    the   Balkans ;  a   line  of  defetice   which  is 


DISBAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.    145 

left  to  the  Turks,   and  which  they   may  make  impreg- 
nable. 

The  Treaty,  of  course,  was  severely  criticised  at  the 
time ;  that  was  only  to  be  expected.  I  can  only  refer 
my  readers  to  the  Parliamentary  debates  on  the  subject  ; 
and  then  remind  them,  as  Lord  Beaconsfield  continually 
did  remind  the  public,  that  its  results,  if  not  all  that 
could  be  wished  for,  had  been  gained  without  the  cost 
of  war.  They  were  the  fruits  of  skilful  and  coura- 
geous diplomacy.  But,  of  course,  they  were  not  all 
which  might  have  been  extorted  at  the  point  of  the 
sword,  after  a  long  and  sanguinary  struggle.  The  only 
question  to  be  answered  is  whether  the  lesser  advantages 
which  we  were  able  to  secure  with  peace  were  not  to 
be  preferred  to  the  larger  ones  which  might  have  been 
obtained  by  war  ?  Two  answers  may  be  given  to  this 
question,  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  which  of  them  Lord 
Beaconsfield  would  have  given  had  he  spoken  from  the 
bottom  of  his  heart.  But  the  fact  remains  that  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin  cost  us  nothing ;  and  whatever  secu- 
rities it  provided  against  the  terrible  scenes  that  must 
ensue  if  ever  the  dismemberment  of  Turkey  shall  be- 
come the  avowed  object  of  any  European  Power,  were  so 
much  clear  gain. 

On    the   familiar   question   of  the  "integrity  of  the 
Ottoman    Empire,'*   Lord   Beaconsfield's    views    were 
traditional,  but  not  superannuated.    His  primary  object 
was  to  bar  the  advance  of  Eu sain  to  the  MediterraneaH^- 
and  to  ensure  that"  When  the  day_^mes, 

As  come  it  must, 
When  Troy's  proud  temples  shall  be  laid  in  dust, 

the    Power    to    step    in  and  occupy  the  vacant   place 
shall  not  be  the  Muscovite.     The  best  means  to  that 

10 


146  LTFJJJ  OF  LOBB  BEACONSFIELD. 

end  lay  in  the  creation  of  a  powerful  independent 
State  between  the  Adriatic  and  the  Black  Sea.  But 
such  a  State  could  not  be  established  in  a  day.  It 
must  be  really,  as  well  as  nominally,  independent ;  a 
free  Power,  and  not  a  Russian  province.  Lord  Bea- 
consfield  fully  recognised  the  superiority  of  such  a 
barrier  over  any  other  that  could  be  created  against 
Muscovite  aggression.  But  in  1878  no  materials 
existed  for  such  an  edifice.  If  we  turn  back  to  what 
Mr.  Canning  told  the  Greeks  in  1826,  and  the  condi- 
tions on  which  he  was  prepared  to  acknowledge  their 
independence,  we  shall  see  that  he,  at  all  events,  would 
have  recognised  the  futility  of  attempting  in  1878  to 
erect  an  independent  kingdom  out  of  the  ruins  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  in  Europe.  With  reference  to  the 
possible  establishment  of  commercial  relations  with 
Greece,  and  other  steps  preliminary  to  a  recognition  of 
her  independence,  he  distinctly  asserted  that  this  could 
not  be  done  till  Greece  showed  herself  capable  of 
maintaining  an  independent  existence,  of  carrying  on  a 
Government  of  her  own,  and  of  controlling  her  own 
military  and  naval  forces.* 

But  Lord  Beaconsfield's  policy  was  distinctly  shaped 
with  a  view  to  the  realisation  of  this  idea  at  some  future 
time.  For  this  purpose  the  grasp  of  Russia  must  at 
once  be  loosened  from  these  provinces,  and  leisure 
must  be  secured  for  them  to  develop  their  internal 
resources,  and  gradually  fit  themselves  for  the  indepen- 
dence which  it  was  hoped  would  one  day  be  their  por- 
tion. Xp  this  end  precise  instructions  were  given  to 
our  ambassador  at  Constantinople,  and  to  Mr.  Michel, 
our  representative  at  Sofia,  to   nurse  the  spirit  of  na- 

*  Mr.  Canning  to  Prince  Lieven,  Nov.  21,  1826. 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     147 

tionality  wherever  they  found  it  among  the  inhabitants 
of  these  countries,  and  to  encourage  them  by  every 
means  in  their  power  to  acquire  the  faculty  of  self- 
government.  In  carrying  out  these  instructions,  they 
naturally  gave  umbrage  to  the  many  Russian  officers 
who  still  lingered  on  the  spot,  and  as  soon  as  Lord 
Beaconsfield  was  driven  from  office,  and  the  complaints 
of  Russia  reached  the  ears  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  Sir  Henry 
Layard  and  Mr.  Michel  were  recalled. 

As  an  independent  State  could  not  at  that  time  be  i< 
formed,  it  was  necessary,  in  the  meantime,  to  take  other  >J\ 
steps  for  providing  against  Russian  conquest,  and  the 
only  alternative  was  to  persevere  in  the  support  of 
Turkey,  and  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  Austria.  Should 
it  eventually  turn  out  that  no  new  State  could  be  con- 
structed, and  that  the  territory  in  question  must  be 
absorbed  into  one  or  other  of  the  adjoining  empires,  it 
was  better  that  it  should  not  be  Russia.  An  Austrian 
empire,  stretching  from  Ragusa  to  Varna  and  from  the 
Carpathians  to  the  Balkans,  or  possibly  farther  still, 
should  keep  the  Cossack  from  the  Mediterranean  for  as 
many  generations  as  statesmen  are  called  on  to  fore- 
cast.* 

Lord  Beaconsfield,  in  the  speech  already  quoted 
(Nov.  9th,  1877),  explained  the  nature  and  origin  of  the 
Anglo-Turkish  Convention,  which  was  simply  a  precau- 
tion adopted  by  this  country  for  the  security  of  the  Eu- 
phrates Valley.  She  had  given  the  Sultan  her  guarantee 
for  the  integrity  of  his  Eastern  possessions  in  Asia 
Minor,  and  had  occupied  Cyprus  to  enable  her  the 
more  readily  to  carry  out  the  engagement.  She  also 
undertook  to  urge  on  Turkey  those  administrative  reforms 

*  History  of  Toryism^  p.  386. 

10  * 


143  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

in  her  Asiatic  provinces,  which  should  take  away  all 
cause  for  Russian  interference  in  future.  The  Anglo- 
Turkish  Convention  was,  in  fact,  an  Indian  rather 
than  a  Turkish  affair,  and  must  stand  or  fall  by  its  ex- 
pediency as  a  safeguard  to  our  Indian  Empire.  The 
other  Powers  would  co-operate  with  us  in  all  the  oth(3r 
branches  of  the  Eastern  Question,  because  they  were 
interested  in  them  themselves;  but  not  in  this  one,  in 
which  England,  accordingly,  must  look  to  **  her  own 
resources  only."  It  did  not  increase  our  responsibilities. 
It  only  lightened  them  by  anticipating  them. 

The  meeting  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  with  the  other 
European  statesmen  who  assembled  at  the  Congress  of 
Berlin,  must  have  been  a  deeply  interesting  event  to 
almost  all  of  them.  His  fame,  of  course,  had  gone 
before  him,  and  it  seemir"that  the  reality  rather  ex- 
ceeded than  fell  short  of  their  expectations.  Lord  Bea- 
consfield always  addressed  the  Congress  in  English, 
and  the  combination  of  dignity  and  power  which 
marked  his  best  style  of  speaking  seems  to  have  made  a 
prolound  impression  on  the  group  of  continental  states- 
men. Whenever  he  mingled  in  Berlin  society,  what 
struck  the  company  most  deeply  was  the  well-known 
characteristics  so  familiar  to  us  all  in  England,  namely, 
his  imperturbable  demeanour.  But  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  left  behind  him  any  specimens  of  his  colloquial 
powers,  such  as  made  him  famous  among  his  country- 
men, for  the  few  repartees  which  rumour  attributes  to 
him  are  too  poor  to  have  been  really  his.  As  soon, 
however,  as  he  touched  the  shores  of  England  on  his 
return  journey,  the  peculiar  rhetoric  of  which  he  was  so 
fond  again  came  into  play,  and  **  Peace  with  Honour," 
which  he  told  the  people  of  Dover  he  had  brought  back 
with  him,  soon  became  a  household  word. 


LISBAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     149 

His  return  to  LoDdon  was  one  long  ovation.  At 
ClVaring  Cross  he  was  met  by  the  Lord  Mayor  in  liis 
robes  of  office,  and  an  assemblage  of  all  that  was  most 
brilliant  in  the  worlds  of  politics,  of  beauty,  and  of 
fashion.  Dense  crowds  of  working  men  thronged  every 
inch  of  the  way  from  the  station  to  Downing  Street  to 
pay  their  tribute  of  homage  to  the  hero  of  the  hour. 
Banners  waved,  and  triumphant  arches  stretched  from 
house  to  house  to  greet  the  great  statesman  who  had 
raised  aloft  again  the  name  of  England  and  re- 
burnished  her  bedimmed  escutcheon. 

He  made  his  entry  into  London  on  the  16th  of  July, 
and  on  the  27th  he  and  Lord  Salisbury  were  entertained 
at  a  great  banquet  by  the  members  of  the  Conservative 
party  in  the  Riding  School  at  Kensington.  A  few  days 
afterwards  the  freedom  of  the  City  was  conferred  upon 
them  both  by  the  London  Corporation,  and  another 
grand  banquet  in  their  honour  was  held  at  the  Guildhall, 
The  speeches  of  both  plenipotentiaries  on  both  these 
occasions  threw  additional  light  on  the  settlement 
effected  by  Lord  Benconsfield.  And  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  in  the  second  of  these  two  speeches  Lord 
Beaconsfield  confessed  his  belief  that  a  more  resolute 
attitude  on  the  part  of  England  in  1876  would  have 
prevented  the  war  altogether,  as  a  similar  display  of 
firmness  in  1853  would  have  prevented  the  Crimean 
war.  He  said,  very  generously,  that  he  accepted  his  full 
share  of  the  responsibility;  but  it  was  an  open  secret 
that  the  responsibility  did  not  rest  with  him,  unless  it  is 
thought  that  he  ought  to  have  resigned  office  rather  than 
continue  to  sanction  a  policy  of  which  he  disapproved. 
But  the  public  dwelt  more,  perhaps,  on  the  humour  and 
the  sarcasm  with  which  the  Prime  Minister  retorted  on  his 
assailants  than  on  the  facts  and  arguments  which  were 


.150  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELD. 

set  before  them.  One  Opposition  statesman  was 
described  as  **  inebriate  with  the  exuberance  of  his 
own  verbosity  '*  ;  to  others  was  imputed  "  the  hare- 
brained chatter  of  irresponsible  frivolity."  The  world 
was  contented  to  laugh  without  reflecting  much  on 
either  the  propriety  or  the  taste  of  these  sallies,  and 
exultant  "jingoism,"  as  it  was  the  fashion  to  call  the 
warlike  spirit  of  the  day,  carried  everything  before  it, 
and  exalted  Lord  Beaconsfield  to  as  high  a  pinnacle 
of  fame  as  has  ever  been  reached  perhaps  by  any  English 
minister  since  the  days  of  Chatham. 

Aspice  ut  insjgnis  spoliis  Marcellus  opimis 
Ingreditur,  victorque  viros  supereminet  omnes. 

So  said  Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  House  of  Commons  in 
reference  to  the  crowning  moment  in  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  career;  and  though  the  gale  of  popular  favour  was 
destined  very  soon  to  change,  it  needed  but  the  dignity 
of  adversity  to  restore  him  to  a  still  higher  place  in 
public  estimation  than  that  which  he  had  occupied  before, 
a  place  which  he  will  now  possess  for  ever. 

His  foreign  policy  must  be  considered  as  a  whole, 
and  the  occupation  of  Cyprus,  the  purchase  of  the 
shares  in  the  Suez  Canal,  and  the  "  scientific  frontier" 
of  Affghanistan,  were  really  all  part  and  parcel  of  one 
great  scheme  for  the  security  of  our  Indian  Empire. 
It  was  indispensable  that  England  should  possess  some 
control  over  the  new  highway  opened  up  to  her  Asiatic 
provinces,  and  the  nation  was  not  less  satisfied  with 
this  stroke  of  policy  on  Lord  Beaconsfield's  part,  than 
with  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  or  the  Convention  which 
was  its  necessary  supplement. 

Of  the  policy  of  the  Affghan  war  of  1878-9  the  best 
accounts  are  to  be  found  in  Lord  Beaconsfield's  speech  in 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     15 1 

the  House  of  Lords  on  December  lOtli,  1878,  the  speech 
at  the  Lord  Mayor's  dinner  in  the  previous  November, 
and  in  his  speech  on  the  evacuation  of  Candahar  on  the 
4th  of  March  1881.  It  was  to  this  last  speech  that 
Lord  Granville  referred  a  few  months  afterwards,*  when 
he  said  that  he  had  known  him  swallow  drugs  in  order 
to  allay  for  a  time  the  pangs  of  neuralgia,  which  would 
otherwise  have  prevented  him  from  addressing  the 
House  of  Lords  with  the  necessary  clearness  and 
animation.  In  the  speech  at  Guildhall  he  described 
'*  the  scientific  frontier,"  which  had  now  been  secured 
for  us ;  and  in  the  House  of  Lords  he  explained  the 
difference  between  a  scientific  frontier  and  a  haphazard 
frontier  very  pithily  by  saying  that  the  former  was  one 
which  could  be  defended  by  five  thousand  men,  while 
the  other  would  require  a  hundred  thousand.  But  in  a 
volume  like  the  present  we  can  take  account  only  of 
general  principles,  and  perhaps  the  following  remarks 
will  place  Lord  Beaconsfield's  ideas  before  the  public 
as  clearly  as  anything  else.  They  are  taken  from  the 
December  speech  : — 

My  Lords,  you  have  an  old  policy  with  regard  to  the  relations  of 
this  country,  India,  and  Afghanistan,  which  has  been  approved  by  all 
public  men.  Lord  Lawrence,  whona  we  all  speak  of  with  great 
respect,  though  the  Lord  Privy  Seal  says  we  systematically  insulted 
him,  was  most  decided  in  his  policy  that  there  should  be  an  English 
interest  in  Afghanistan,  and  that  Russian  inlluenco  in  it  should  not  for 
a  moment  bo  tolerated.  Well,  what  is  your  policy  now  ?  Where  will 
EngUsh  interests  be  when  you  have  evacuated  Afghanistan?  What 
will  be  the  state  of  Afghanistan?  It  will  bo  a  state  of  anarchy. 
We  have  always  announced,  as  a  reason  for  interfering  in  Afghanistan, 
that  we  cannot  tolerate  a  state  of  anarchy  on  our  frontiers.  Is  not 
that  an  argument  as  good  for  Russia  as  for  us  ?  Will  not  the  Rus- 
sians say,  "  Afghanistan  is  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  and  we  cannot  go  on 
civilising  Turkestan  when  Afghanistan  is  in  a  state  of  anarchy"? 

*  House  of  Lords,  May  9th,  1881. 


152  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIFLD. 

Therefore  yon  are  furnishing  Russia  with  an  occasion  for  advancing. 
When  I  speak  of  this  policy  of  Russia,  I  do  not  speak  of  it  in  a  hos- 
tile spirit.  Russia  has  a  right  to  its  policy  as  well  as  England, 
Russia  has  as  good  a  right  to  create  an  empire  in  Tartary  as  we  have 
in  India.  She  must  take  the  consequences  if  the  creation  of  her 
empire  endangers  our  power.  I  see  nothing  in  that  feeling  on  the 
part  of  England  which  should  occasion  any  want  of  friendliness 
between  this  country  and  Russia.  We  must  guard  against  what  must 
be  looked  upon  as  the  inevitable  designs  of  a  very  great  Power 
When  Lord  Palmerston  carried  one  of  the  greatest  measures  of  his 
life — the  fortification  of  the  Channel,  which  was  of  much  more  im- 
portance than  the  retaining  of  Candahar — was  that  looked  upon  as  a 
symbol  of  hostility  to  the  French  people?  Eveiyone  knows  that 
Lord  Palmerston  was  very  friendly  to  the  French  alliance,  and  yet 
that  was  an  operation  directed  immediately  against  France,  for  the 
purpose  of  putting  an  end  to  the  continual  fluctuations  of  bluster  and 
fear  which  such  a  situation  as  England  was  in  at  that  time  must 
necessarily  entail. 

What  I  see  in  the  amendment  is  not  an  assertion  of  great  principles, 
which  no  man  honours  mox-e  than  myself.  What  is  at  the  bottom  of  it 
is  rather  that  principle  of  peace  at  any  price  which  a  certain  party  in 
this  country  upholds.  It  is  that  dangerous  dogma  which,  I  believe, 
animates  the  ranks  before  me  at  this  moment,  although  many  of  them 
may  be  unconscious  of  it.  That  deleterious  doctrine  haunts  the 
people  of  this  country  in  every  form.  Sometimes  it  is  a  committee ; 
sometimes  it  is  a  letter ;  sometimes  it  is  an  amendment  to  the 
Address ;  sometimes  it  is  a  proposition  to  stop  the  supplies.  The 
doctrine  has  done  more  mischief  than  any  I  can  well  recall  that  have 
been  afloat  in  this  century.  It  has  occasioned  more  wars  than  the 
most  ruthless  conquerors.  It  has  disturbed  and  nearly  destroyed  that 
political  equiUbrium  so  necessary  to  the  liberties  of  nations  and  the 
welfare  of  the  world.  It  has  dimmed  occasionally  for  a  moment  even 
the  majesty  of  England.  And,  my  lords,  to-night  you  have  an  oppor- 
tunity, which  I  trust  you  will  not  lose,  of  branding  these  opinions, 
these  deleterious  dogmas,  with  the  reprobation  of  the  Peers  of  Eng- 
land. 

In  a  passage  in  Coningshy  the  author  says  of  Mr. 
Rigby  that  he  had  persuaded  the  world  that  he  was 
not  only  clever,  but  also  that  he  was  always  in  luck,  a 
quality  which  many  people  appreciate  even  more  than 
capacity.     Now  one  may  surely  assert  that  the  result  of 


: 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.    153 

a  long  course  of  events  bad  been  to  produce  tbe  contrary 
impression  witb  regard  to  Lord  Beaconsfield  and  tbe 
Tories.  Many  instances  could  be  produced  in  support  of 
this  assertion.  But  it  will  be  enough  to  remark  on 
the  very  unfortunate  conjunction  of  adverse  circum- 
stances which  closed  round  the  last  years  of  Lord 
Beaconsfield's  Administration.  The  Zulu  War,  whicli\ 
ought  to  have  been  no  more  than  one  of  those  petty 
expeditions  such  as  are  almost  inseparable  from  the 
possession  of  a  great  colonial  empire,  was  swelled  b) 
mismanagement  into  an  affair  of  the  first  magnitude 
and  all  the  disgrace  and  all  the  grief  occasioned  by^ 
Isandula  were  visited  on  the  head  of  Lord  Bea- 
consfield. At  the  same  time,  the  favourable  condition 
of  trade  and  agriculture,  which  had  lasted  almost 
without  intermission  from  the  repeal  of  the  Corn 
Laws  to  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  rapidly 
declined  from  that  date ;  and  an  unparalleled  series  of 
bad  seasons  and  miserable  harvests,  combined  with  an 
ever-growiag  foreign  competition,  helped  to  generate 
wide-spread  distress  among  the  agricultural  classes,  witli 
its  natural  concomitants  of  discontent,  irritability,  and 
a  blind  belief  that  any  change  must  be  for  the  better. 
But  three  very  favourable  elections  occurring  about 
the  same  time  at  SheEBeld,  Liverpool,  and  South- 
wark,  shed  a  delusive  ray  of  popularity  over  the 
Conservative  Government,  and  persuaded  Lord  Bea- 
consfield's colleagues  that  now  or  never  was  the  time  to 
appeal  to  the  people.  Just  before  the  dissolution  be 
addressed  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  dwelling  on  the  dangerous 
condition  of  that  country,  which  was  much  censured  at 
the  time,  but  the  truth  of  which  was  speedily  acknow- 
ledged.    However,  the  people  were  bent  upon  a  change. 


154  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEACONSFIELD. 

Tlie  Conservative  Party  lost  one  hundred  and  eleven  seats. 
And  Lord  Beaconsfield,  who  had  never  been  sanguine 
of  the  result,  retired  once  more  to  his  old  position  with- 
out any  external  signs  of  chagrin  or  disappointment. 

He  was  nowin  his  seyentyrsixth  year,  and  time  and  toil 
and  trouble  had  done  their  work  upon  him.  But  the 
dignity  with  which  he  bore  his  change  of  fortune,  and 
the  wise  and  moderate  counsels  by  which,  for  the 
brief  period  still  left  to  him,  he  regulated  the  counsels 
of  his  party,  were  the  theme  of  general  remark.  To 
distract  his  own  attention,  as  much  perhaps  as  for  any 
other  purpose,  he  went  back  to  literature,  and  as  he 
had  solaced  himself  after  the  great  reverse  of  1868 
with  the  composition  of  Lolhair,  so  did  he  now  with 
the  comi^os\i\on  o{  E fid t/mio?i,  which  was  published  in 
November  1880,  and  of  which  what  I  have  to  say  will  be 
found  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  But  at  the  opening  of 
Parliament  in  January  1881  he  appeared  in  his  place, 
npparently  in  his  usual  heaUh,  and  spoke  both  on  the 
Address  (January  6th),  and  on  Lord  Lytton's  policy  in 
India  as  effectively  as  ever.  This,  however,  was  his 
last  great  speech  in  Parliament,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
know  that  his  last  words  were  uttered  in  defence  of  the 
great  Empire,  and  the  great  principles  of  government, 
of  which  he  had  all  his  life  been  the  faithful  soldier 
and  servant. 

I  saw  him  for  the  last  time  at  a  London  party  one 
evening  in  March,  and  he  then  seemed  to  be  quite  as 
strong  and  well  as  a  man  of  his  age  could  be  ex- 
pected to  be.  But  on  the  23rd  it  became  known 
that  he  was  suffering  from  an  Attack  of  bronchitis,  and 
as  the  symptoms  grew  more  serious,  the  sympathy  and 
anxiety  of  the  public  became  general  and  profound. 
Of  the  four  weeks  that  followed,   during  which  Lord 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY,     155 

Beaconsfield's  condition  was  in  every  heart  and  on 
every  tongue,  a  detailed  account  is  to  be  fouyd  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  period,  and  need  not  be  repeated 
here.  His  illness  fluctuated  with  the  changes  of  the 
weather,  which  was  generally,  however,  unfavourable 
to  his  complaint,  and  the  complication  of  gout  and 
bronchitis  made  the  treatment  of  it  proportionably 
difficult.  All  day  long  his  door  in  Curzon  Street  was 
besieged  by  a  succession  of  visitors  eager  to  see  the 
latest  medical  report,  or  to  testify  their  respect  and 
aflection  for  the  illustrious  patient.  The  Queen  and  the 
Prince  of  Wales  were  constant  in  their  inquiries,  and 
groups  of  working  men  assembled  every  morning  in 
Curzon  Street,  deeply  interested  in  the  life  of  one 
whom  they  recognised  not  less  as  the  benefactor  of 
their  own  order  than  as  the  vindicator  of  their  country's 
honour. 

During  the  progress  of  his  illness  Lord  Beaconsfield 
retained  his  cheerfulness,  and  conversed  occasionally 
upon  public  affairs  with  his  usual  spirit.  The  only 
friends,  however,  who  were  admitted  to  his  bedside  were 
Lord  Rowton,  Lord  Barrington,  and  Sir  Philip  Rose, 
who  were  sometimes  surprised  at  the  apparent  strength 
and  vivacity  which  he  exhibited.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  second  week  in  April  the  weather  grew  com- 
paratively mild,  and  hopes  were  entertained  that  the 
strength  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  constitution  might  still 
enable  him  to  rally.  On  the  17th,  however,  the  wind 
turned  to  the  north-east,  and  the  cold  once  more  became 
severe.  On  the  18th,  Easter  Sunday,  the  effect  of  it  on 
the  patient  was  very  visible,  and  towards  night  became 
alarming.  About  midnight  he  sank  into  a  stupor,  and 
at  half-past  four  on  the  morning  of  Tuesday  the  19th 
he    died,    his   right    hand    in    the   clasp    of  his   dear 


156  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFAGONSFIELB. 

friends  Lord  Barrington  and  Lord  Rowton,  and  his  left 
in  that  of  Dr.  Kidd. 

So  passed  away  one  of  those  extraordinary  characters 
who  appear  only  at  intervals  of  centuries.  No  such 
public  grief  has  been  witnessed  in  England  since  the 
the  death  of  Mr.  Pitt,  and  even  that  was  confined  to  a 
narrower  circle,  and  chiefly  to  the  people  of  Great  Bri- 
tain. But  the  death  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  affected  all 
classes  and  alT'coiintries.  The  peasant  and  the  artizan, 
the  middle  classes,  the  aristocracy,  and  the  Court  were 
stirred  by  a  common  sorrow,  while  some  of  the  most 
touching  tributes  to  Lord  Beaconsfield's  character  and 
genius,  and  most  accurate  estimates  of  the  great  loss 
which  England  had  sustained,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
columns  of  Oontinenal  journals,  the  conductors  of 
which  well  knew  that  it  was  not  England  alone  on  whom 
the  blow  had  fallen. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  was  buried  on  Monday  the  28th  of 
April  in  the  vault  of  Hughenden  Church,  by  the  side 
of  Lady  Beaconsfield,  and  not  far  from  one  who  had 
left  her  fortune  to  the  great  statesman  whom  she  vene- 
rated, on  the  romantic  condition  that  in  death  at  least 
they  should  not  be  divided.  The  day  will  long  be  re- 
membered by  Hughenden,  by  Buckinghamshire,  and  by 
England.  The  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Duke  of  Con- 
naught,  and  Prince  Leopold  saw  his  coJBfin  lowered  into 
the  grave ;  and  the  surrounding  circle  included  the 
Marquis  of  Salisbury,  the  Marquis  of  Exeter,  Count 
Munster,  Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  Lord  John  Manners, 
Lord  Beauchamp,  Lord  Lytton,  Sir  Frederick  Leighton, 
Lord  Henry  Lennox,  Mr.  Cecil  Ptaikes,  Lord  Laming- 
ton — "peers  of  every  degree,  the  representatives  of  the 
greatest  sovereigns  of  the  world,  and  men  whose  names 
are  part  of  the  history  of  England."      Lord  Rowton 


JDISBAELI A8  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     157 

and  Lord  Barrington  stood  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
clergyman,  and  next  to  them  Mr.  Ralph  Disraeli  with 
his  son  Coningsby  Disraeli,  then  a  boy  of  twelve  years 
old,  and  the  future  owner  of  Hughenden.  But  not  the 
least  interesting  feature  of  this  interesting  and  melan- 
choly day  was  the  assembly  gathered  together  on  the 
road  outside  the  church,  consisting  of  the  statesman's 
humbler  friends  and  neighbours  in  his  Buckinghamshire 
home,  farmers  and  labourers  and  tradesmen,  women  and 
children,  all,  if  not  in  black,  at  least  with  some  token 
of  mourning  displayed  upon  their  persons.  It  may 
be  said  that  till  the  day  of  his  death  England  hardly 
knew  how  much  she  had  loved  the  deceased  states- 
man, and  that  she  might  almost  have  exclaimed,  with 
the  child  mourning  for  his  brother,  that  while  he  was 
still  spared  to  her  she  could  have  wished  that  she  had 
loved  him  more. 

On  the  30th  of  April  Her  Majesty  and  the  Princess 
Beatrice  paid  a  visit  to  Hughenden,  when  the  Queen, 
having  descended  into  the  vault,,  and  placed  another 
wreath  of  white  camelias  on  Lord  Beaconsfield's  cofBn, 
took  a  last  farewell  of  the  loyal  and  trusted  Minister* 
who,  whatever  his  faults  and  errors,  had  always  been 
true  to  herself,  and  to  all  that  he  believed  most  condu- 
cive to  the  glory  of  the  English  monarchy. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  was  very  fond  of  flowers,  and  of 
"Ihem  his  favourite  was  the  primrose.  After  his  death 
~it  became  the  emblem  of  the  principles  which  he  repre- 
sented, and  the  badge  of  all  those  who  wished  lo  be 
considered  his  disciples.  A  Primrose  League  was  esta- 
blished for  the  propagation  of  **  that  new  creed  which  is 
the  old,"  the  Toryism  which  he  had  cleared  of  its  ex- 
crescences, and  restored  to  its  pristine  popularity;  and 
Primrose  Clubs  sprang  up  in  abundance  with  the  same 


158  LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELD. 

object  in  view.  The  day  of  his  death  is  still  observed 
as  Primrose  Day,  and  it  has  now  long  been  evident 
that  the  love  and  admiration  with  which  he  had 
inspired  the  English  people  was  no  fickle  or  evanescent 
passion  excited  by  a  showy  and  meretricious  policy,  and 
ending  with  the  phenomena  that  produced  it,  but  a 
deep  and  lasting  sentiment,  founded  on  a  lirm  belief  in 
the  greatness  of  his  character,  the  power  of  his  intel- 
lect, and  the  important  services  which  he  had  rendered 
to  the  Constitution  and  the  Empire. 

In  both  Houses  of  Parliament  graceful  and  eloquent 
tributes  to  his  memory  were  paid  by  the  Leaders  of 
both  parties.  Lord  Granville  said,  *'  My  Lords,  it  is 
impossible  for  anyone  to  deny  that  Lord  Beaconsfield 
played  a  great  part  in  English  history.  No  one  can 
deny  his  rare  and  splendid  gifts,  and  how  continuous 
have  been  his  services  with  regard  to  the  Crown  and 
Parliament.'*     The  Marquis  of  Salisbury  said  : — 

That  his  friends  and  colleagues  should  mourn  his  loss  and  revere 
his  memory  is  only  too  natural.  I  have  not  the  same  title  to  speak  on 
this  subject  as  many  of  those  beside  me,  because  my  close  political 
connection  with  him  was  comparatively  recent.  But  it  lasted  through 
anxious  and  difficult  times,  when  the  character  of  men  may  be  plainly 
seen  by  those  who  work  with  them.  And  to  me,  as  I  believe  to  all 
others  who  have  worked  with  him,  his  patience,  his  gentleness,  his 
unswerving  and  unselfish  loyalty  to  his  colleagues  and  fellow- 
labourers,  have  made  an  impression  which  will  never  leave  me  so  long 
as  life  endures.  But  these  feelings  could  only  affect  a  limited  circle 
of  his  immediate  adherents.  The  impression  which  his  career  and 
character  have  made  on  the  vast  mass  of  his  countrymen  must  be 
sought  elsewhere.  To  a  great  extent,  no  doubt,  it  is  due  to  the  pecu- 
liar character  of  his  genius,  to  its  varied  nature,  to  the  wonderful 
combination  of  qualities  he  possessed,  and  which  rarely  reside  in  the 
same  brain.  To  some  extent,  also,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  circum- 
stances to  which  the  noble  Earl  has  so  eloquently  alluded — that  is,  the 
social  difficulties  which  opposed  themselves  to  his  early  rise,  and  the 
splendid  perseverance  by  which  they  were  overcome — impressed  his 
countrymen,   who   love  to    see    exemplified  that  career   open  to  all 


DISRAELI  AS  LEADER  OF  THE  PARTY.     159 

persons,  whatever  their  initial  difficulties  may  be,  which  is  me  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  institutions  of  which  they  are  most  proud. 

■  Zeal  for  the  greatness  of  England  was  the  passion  of  his  mind. 
Opinions  might,  and  did,  differ  deeply  as  to  the  measures  and  steps 
by  which  expression  was  given  to  the  dominant  feelings,  and  more 
and  more,  as  life  drew  near  its  close,  as  the  heat  and  turmoil  of  con- 
troversy were  left  behind,  as  the  gratification  of  every  possible  ambi- 
tion negatived  the  suggestion  of  any  inferior  motives,  and  brought  out 
into  greater  prominence  the  purity  and  strength  of  this  one  intense 
feeling,  the  people  of  this  country  recognised  the  force  with  which 
this  desire  dominated  his  actions. 

In  the  questions  of  interior  policy  which  divided  classes  he  had  to 
consider  them,  he  had  to  judge  them,  and  to  take  his  course  accord- 
ingly. It  seemed  tome  that  he  treated,'  them  always  as  of  secondary 
interest,  compared  to  this  one  great /question — how  the  country  to 
which  he  belonged  might  be  made  united  and  strong. 

Mr.  Gladstone  said  : — 

The  career  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  is,  in  many  respects,  the  most 
remarkable  one  in  Parliamentary  history.  For  my  own  part,  I  know 
but  one  that  can  fairly  be  compared  to  it  in  regard  to  the  emotion  of 
surprise,  and  when  viewed  as  a  whole,  an  emotion,  I  might  almost 
say,  of  wonder ;  and  that  is  the  career,  and  especially  the  earlier  career, 
of  Mr.  Pitt. 

There  were  certain  great  qualities  of  the  deceased  statesmen  on 
which  I  think  it  right  to  touch.  His  extraordinary  intellectual 
powers  are  as  well  understood  by  others  as  by  me,  and  they  are  not 
proper  subjects  for  our  present  commendation.  But  there  were  other 
great  qualities — qualities  not  merely  intellectual,  in  the  sense  of  being 
dissociated  from  conduct,  but  qualities  immediately  connected  with 
conduct,  with  regard  to  which  I  should  say,  were  I  a  younger  man, 
that  I  should  like  to  stamp  the  recollection  of  them  on  myself  for  my 
own  future  guidance,  and  with  regard  to  which  I  will  confidently  say 
to  those  who  are  younger  than  myself,  that  I  would  strongly  recom- 
mend them  for  notice  and  imitation.  They  were  qualities  not  only 
written  in  a  marked  manner  on  his  career,  but  possessed  by  him  in  a 
degree  undoubtedly  extraordinary.  I  speak,  for  example,  of  such  as 
these — his  strength  of  will,  his  long-sighted  persistency  of  purpose, 
reaching  from  the  first  entrance  on  the  avenue  of  life  to  its  very  close 
his  remarkable  powers  of  self-government ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  of 
all.  his  great  parliamentary  courage,  a  quality  in  which  I,  who  have 
been  associated  in  the  course  of  my  life  with  some  scores  of  ministers 
have  never  known  but  two  who  could  be  pronounced  his  equal. 


160  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

These  two  were  possibly.  Lord  John  Eussell  and  the 
late  Lord  Derby,  With  this  record  of  opinion  from 
his  great  antagonist,  the  narrative  of  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  public  life  may  be  appropriately  closed.  It 
remains  to  speak  of  his  general  position  as  a  statesman, 
an  orator,  and  a  man  of  letters. 


161 


CHAPTER  VII. 

STATESMAN   AND    ORATOR. 

Estimates  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  statesmanship — His  foreign  -policy — 
His  domestic  policy  —  Theory  of  popular  government — One 
opinion  of  the  duties  of  Conservatism  —  Lord  Beaconsfield's 
opinion — Changes  in  his  views — Distrust  of  the  middle  class — 
Our  territorial  constitution — TEeTrfsh  question — LioTd  Beacons- 
field's ecclesiastical  views — The  monarchichal  revival — Idealism 
Qf_Iiand.-Bea«tmsfield — Increased  power  of  the  minister^=Lord 
Beaconsfield's  position  as  an  orator — Specimens  of  his  eloquence 
— His  use  of  rhetoric — His  vein  of  irony — Famous  sarcasms. 

Of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  statesmanship  various  estimates 
have  been  formed.  That  he  was  one  of  the  greatest 
Party  Leaders  which  our  system  of  government  has 
"produced  will  be  generally  admitted.  But  a  man  may 
be  a  great  Party  Leader  without  being  a  great  states- 
man; and  to  determine  whether  his  claims  to  this  higher 
dignity  are  well  founded  or  not,  we  must  consider  how 
far  he  comprehends  the  character  of  his  own  age, 
whether  in  his  "dealings  with  the  contingencies  and 
emergencies  which  it  thrusts  upon  him  he  displays  the 
qualities  of  foresight,  sagacity,  and  the  power  of  taking 
broad  views  of  political  affairs,  or  whetlier,  so  to  speak, 
he   only  lives   from   hand  to  mouth,   and   is   satisfied 

11 


162  LIFU  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD, 

with  so  adjusting  public  questions  as  to  suit  the  tem- 
porary exigencies  or  prejudices  of  his  own  party  without 
looking  farther  ahead.  Lord  Beaconsfield  has  been 
accused  of  doing  this  ;  of  sacrificing  Conservative  prin- 
ciples for  the  sake  of  place  and  power,  and  of  inflicting 
deep  wounds  on  the  Constitution  for  selfish  and  am- 
bitious objects.  It  may  be  permitted  us  on  the  present 
occasion  to  examine  the  validity  of  this  charge  with 
some  little  attention,  since  it  is  doubtful  even  now 
whether  the  delusion  in  which  it  had  its  origin  has 
ever  been  properly  exposed. 

Of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  statesmanship  in  the  depart- 
ment of  Foreign  Affairs,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  he 
followed  the  traditional  policy  of  Chatham,  Pitt,  Gren- 
ville,  Canning,  and  Palmerston,  as  distinguished  from 
those  theories  on  the  subject  which  a  later  school  of 
Radical  politicians  have  more  recently  introduced. 
That  England,  though  a  small  island,  is  the  head  of 
a  vast  empire,  which  through  its  commerce  and  its 
colonies  is  connected  by  a  thousand  links  with  the 
European  system,  as  firmly  and  as  closely  as  if  it  had 
been  conteruiinous  with  France,  Germany,  or  Eussia ; 
consequently  that  our  interests  are  more  or  less  affected 
by  every  continental  complication,  and  that  alliances 
and  interventions  are  as  much  a  necessity  to  ourselves 
as  to  any  of  the  great  military  Powers ;  that  a  policy 
of  isolation  is  in  principle  like  a  policy  of  disarma- 
ment, founded  on  the  belief  that  it  is  better  to  run  the 
risk  of  ruin  than  to  pay  the  cost  of  insurance — such 
are  the  few  cardinal  maxims  which  have  ruled  the 
foreign  policy  of  all  our  greatest  modern  statesmen. 
They  lie  upon  the  surface,  and  require  neither  defence 
nor  explanation.  But  that  is  not  the  case  with  the 
domestic  policy  of  Lord  Beaconsfield,  which  was  based 


STATESMAN  AND  ORATOR.  163 

on  considerations  not,  indeed,  very  abstruse  or  recondite, 
but  requiring,  nevertheless,  a  little  more  thought  than 
the  Tadpoles  and  Tapers  of  the  day  are  generally 
willing  to  bestow  on  them. 

In  the  course  of  the  debates  on  the  Reform  Bill  of 
1867,  Lord  Beaoonsfield  pointed  out  that  the  objections 
brought  against  his  measure  were  fatal  in  reality  to  all 
popular  government,  since  all  popular  government  in- 
volved the  periodical  extension  of  political  privileges. 
These  might,  of  course,  be  abused,  and  made  subservient 
to  revolutionary  ngitators.  But  that  could  not  be 
helped.  Nobody  will  maintain  at  the  present  day  that 
it  would  have  been  possible  for  any  Government,  after 
1832,  to  continue  to  hold  power  on  the  avowed  principle 
of  resisting  all  popular  innovations.  E^ven  the  Con- 
servatives of  1867  would  hardly  have  said  that.  What 
they  did  say  was  this,  that  it  was  not  for  the  Conservative 
Party  to  undertake  such  changes,  without  apparently 
perceiving  that  such  a  doctrine  was  tantamount  to  con- 
demning the  Conservative  Party  to  perpetual  exclusion 
from  office,  on  any  honourable  or  independent  terms. 
If  they  come  into  power  on  such  an  understanding,  they 
can  only  retain  it  till  their  opponents  have  determined 
■what  is  the  next  great  change  that  can  most  ad- 
vantageously be  announced,  and  what  the  most  popular 
cry  to  raise  throughout  the  country.  A  session  is  enough 
for  this,  and  in  the  meantime  a  Conservative  Govern- 
ment must  necessarily  be  a  Government  upon  sufferance, 
and  therefore  an  object  of  contempt.  Lord  Beaconsfield 
knew  what  it  was  to  hold  office  on  sufferance,  and  the 
iron  had  entered  into  his  soul. 

There  were  not  wanting  Conservatives  in  1867  who 
were  willing  to  face  this  position  and  accept  the  logical 
result.     Let  the  Conservative  Party  they  said,  be  lionce- 

11    * 


164  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACOlSfSFIELD. 

forth  recognised  as  the  Constitutional  Opposition^  whose 
business  it  is  to  temper,  modify,  and  restrain  the  Radical 
tendencies  of  Liberalism,  but  never  to  assume  the 
Government.  If  popular  progress  is  the  order  of  the 
day,  the  proper  rer/ime  is  a  Liberal  Government  to  intro- 
duce organic  changes,  and  a  Conservative  Opposition  to 
prevent  them  from  going  too  far.  Thus  each  party 
will  be  in  its  right  place,  and  both  perhaps  equally 
useful.  The  Conservative  Party  will  occupy  an  in- 
telligible and  honourable  position,  and  always  be  able 
to  act  up  to  its  original  principles.  Unfortunately, 
however,  this  theory  of  Parliamentary  Government,  if 
carried  a  step  farther  will  be  found  to  destroy  itself.  An 
Opposition,  to  discharge  the  functions  here  assigned  to 
it,  must  be  powerful,  and  an  Opposition  to  be  power- 
ful must  be  formidable.  But  an  Opposition  which 
abjured  office  would  have  no  terrors  for  any  Ministry. 
It  could  only  fire  blank  cartridges,  and,  make  as 
much  noise  as  it  would,  nobody  would  be  really  hurt. 
In  other  words,  an  Opposition  which  acted  on  this 
principle  would  cease  to  be  an  Opposition  at  all  in  the 
Parliamentary  sense  of  the  term,  and  could  exercise  little 
or  no  control  over  the  policy  of  the  Government.  What 
becomes,  then,  of  its  pretensions  to  keep  in  check 
Radical  proclivities  ? 

But  this  is  not  all.  Such  an  Opposition  as  this,  while 
it  would  have  no  weight  with  the  Ministry,  would  have 
no  attractions  for  the  public.  Clever  young  men  would 
cease  to  throw  in  their  lot  with  a  party  which  made  a 
virtue  of  renouncing  all  the  prizes  of  public  life.  The 
leaders  of  the  Bar  who  look  to  a  Parliamentary  career  as 
the  surest  road  to  professional  advancement,  would  no 
longer  be  found  on  the  Opposition  benches,  and  the 
party  would  be  robbed  of  a  tributary  which  is  now  one 


STATESMAN  AND  ORATOR.  165 

of  its  chief  elements  of  strength.  Ceasing  to  be  con- 
tinually reinforced  by  the  best  brains  in  the  country, 
and  the  fresh  energies  of  the  rising  generation,  the 
Opposition,  would  dwindle  to  a  shadow,  and  become 
totally  incapable  of  exercising  that  conservative  influence 
for  the  sake  of  which  alone  it  had  adopted  this  self-deny- 
ing ordinance.  For  the  Conservative  Party  to  fulfil  its 
mission,  it  must  retain  the  power  of  attracting  into  its 
ranks  the  young,  able,  and  ambitious  men  of  each  suc- 
ceeding generation,  and  of  holding  over  the  ministers  of 
the  day  the  constant  possibility  of  a  change.  To  do 
this  they  must  be  in  a  position  not  only  to  take  office, 
but  to  keep  it.  And  to  place  themselves  in  this  position 
they  must  be  ready  to  move  with  the  times,  and  show 
themselves  capable  of  satisfying  the  wants  of  the  nation. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  saw  that  this  rule  of  action,  so  far  " 
from  being  a  sacrifice  of  Conservative  principles,  was 
really  the  only  way  of  giving  eff'ect  to  them.  Changes 
which  cannot  be  prevented  may  be  rendered  less  destruc- 
tive in  Conservative  hands  than  they  would  be  in 
Radical  hands;  and  Conservatives  are  acting  just  as 
honourable  and  dignified  a  part  in  adopting  a  policy 
of  which  they  disapprove  in  the  abstract,  that  they  may 
render  it  less  mischievous  in  the  concrete,  as  they  would 
be  in  resisting  it  altogether  when  their  resistance  is 
certain  to  be  useless.  This  was  the  conviction  on 
which  Lord  Beaconsfield  acted ;  and  it  was  surely  a 
statesman-like  conviction.  He  knew  that  we  lived  in 
revolutionary  times,  and  he  saw  that  the  only  way  in 
such  times  of  securing  any  share  of  influence  to  Con- 
servative ideas  was  that  which  I  have  described.  With 
many  Conservative  Members  of  Parliament  it  is  simply 
enough  that  they  dislike  a  thing,  that  it  seems  to  them 
intrinsically  undesirable,  to  make  them  think  it  must  be 


166  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAC0N8FIELD, 

doggedly  resisted  without  looking  to  the  riglit  or  to  the 
left.  They  do  not  consider  that,  in  an  ago  like  the  pre- 
sent, politics,  from  the  Conservative  point  of  view,  are 
often  but  a  choice  of  evils.  They  did  not  see  this  in  times 
past,  even  if  they  see  it  now.  But  Lord  Beaconsfield 
saw  it,  and  proved  his  statesmanship  by  acting  on  it. 

It  ought  to  be  unnecessary  at  the  present  day  to 
argue  such  a  point  as  this.  Parties  are  always  in  a 
state  of  change.  It  is  the  law  of  their  nature.  Wl}igsand 
Tories,  Conservatives  and  Radicals  are  always,  to  borrow 
a  metaphor  from  Mr.  Gladstone,  going  through  the  pro- 
cess analogous  to  that  which  is  constantly  taking  place 
in  our  bodily  system.  To  recognise  the  truth  where 
others  fail  to  see  it,  and  to  act  upon  it  when  all  around 
us  are  resisting  it,  is  one  test  of  statesmanship,  as  well  as 
of  political  philosophy,  from  which  Lord  Beaconsfield 
certainly  need  not  shrink.  What  his  Conservative  critics 
would  have  had  him  do  was  a  practical  impossibility. 

In  his  conception  of  the  English  Constitution,  and 
of  the  relations  of  parties  to  each  other,  Lord  Beacons- 
field shifted  his  standpoint,  as  he  gained  more  practical 
experience.]  In  the  Life  of  Lord  George  Bentinck,  he 
describes  tne  Whigs  as  the  leaders  of  the  English  aris- 
tocracy. When  he  wrote  these  words  he  must  have 
meant  by  the  aristocracy  the  nobility,  and  have  been 
comparing  them  with  the  Tory  country  gentlemen  who 
did  undoubtedly  at  one  time  represent  popular  feeling 
more  accurately  than  the  Whigs.  /He  loved  to  dwell 
on  the  popular  character  and  functions  of  *'  the 
knightly  order ''  and  the  great  part  which  it  had  played 
in  historyX  He  himself  has  told  us  that  between 
1783  and  lBjl5  the  positions  of  English  parties  were 
reversed.  But  he  seems  for  a  long  time  to  have  dwelt 
on  the  possibility  of  their  returning  to  their   original 


STATESMAN  AND  ORATOR,  1G7 

positions,  and  though  it  is  clear  that  by  the  year  1873, 
when  he  made  the  speech  which  is  quoted  at  page  57, 
he  was  alive  to  the  fact  that  both  classes  of  the  aris- 
tocracy were  in  the  same  boat  at  last,  and  that  the 
nobility  and  country  gentlemen  had  no  longer  any  sepa- 
rate interests,  but  must  stand  or  fall  together. 

The  fact  is  that  Lord  Beaconsfield  in  his  library, 
giving  the  rein  to  his  imagination,  and  tracing  all 
kinds  of  analogies  between  the  past  and  present  state 
of  politics,  and  Lord  Beaconsfield  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  dealing  with  actual  circumstances  and  edu- 
cating his  party  upon  questions  calling  for  imme- 
diate settlement,  were  two  distinct  men,  leading  two 
lives  almost  as  different  from  each  other  as  were  the  two 
lives  led,  according  to  Lockhart,  by  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
In  the  one  he  was  a  Wyndham,  a  Shippen  or  a  Brom- 
ley fighting  for  the  Church,  the  landed  interest,  and 
the  poor,  against  the  Whigs,  the  Dissenters,  the  moneyed 
interest,  and  the  mob,  deploring  the  degradation  of  the 
Crown  and  the  predominance  of  a  crafty  oligarchy.  In 
the  other  he  was  the  keen  and  ready-witted  leader  of 
the  modern  Tory  Party,  including  in  its  ranks  the 
greater  part  of  that  very  oligarchy,  which  history  taught 
him  to  be  the  natural  enemy  of  Toryism,  engaged  in 
the  defence  of  principles  never  called  in  question  by  our 
ancestors,  and  responding  lo  watchwords  which,  to 
ihem,  would  have  been  wholly  unintelligible. 

In  the  one  capacity  he  was  as  speculative  as  Hobbes 
or  Harrington  ;  in  the  other,  as  practical  as  the  Con- 
servative attorneys  who  **  nibbed  their  pens  and  whis- 
pered there  was  nothing  like  reaction.""  He  lived  these 
two  lives  separately  and  alternately  till  his  last  hour; 
but,  unlike  what  might  have  been  expected,  they  rarely 
interfered  with   each  other.     For  the  popular  Toryism 


168  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD, 

with  which  he  is  associated  was  founded  on  an  acute 
perception  of  tlie  character  of  his  own  times,  and  of  the 
only  means  by  which  Conservatism  could  become  a  real 
power  in  the  country. 

In  one  respect,  and  in  one  only,  does  he  seem  to  have 
been  always  the  same,  and  that  was  in  his  distrust  of 
the  middle  classes  as  an  element  of  political  stability. 
In  his  speech  on  the  Chartist  petition  in  1839  he  gave 
utterance  to  this  sentiment.  It  is  to  be  found  again  in 
a  very  remarkable  speech  which  he  delivered  on  the  20th 
of  February  1846,  and  every  page  of  ComiKjshii  and 
^yhil  is  rife  with  it.  He  believed  that  permanent  and 
powerful  governments  might  be  founded  on  either 
monarchy,  oligarchy,  or  democracy.  But  he  had  no 
faith  in  a  hourgeoise  constitution,  j 

In  his  views  regarding  the  peasantry  and  the  arti- 
sans, the  commercial  capitalists,  and  the  rural  aristo- 
cracy, we  may  trace  the  influence  of  Cobbett.  Cobbett 
believed  in  our  '*  territorial  constitution  "  as  much  as 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  but  he  wished  to  see  it  rescued  from 
the  predominance  of  dukes,  marquises,  and  nabobs,  with 
their  overgrown  estates,  and  sighed  for  the  days  when 
the  halls  and  manor  houses,  inhabited  by  country  gentle- 
men of  ancient  birth  and  moderate  estate,  had  not  yet 
been  bought  up  by  the  Tritons  and  turned  into  farm- 
houses. Mr.  Disraeli  was  obliged  to  handle  this  part  of 
the  question  somewhat  delicately.  But  what  he  thought 
upon  the  subject  is  plainly  discernible  in  Sybil,  where 
the  very  words  of  Cobbett  are  occasionally  to  be  dis- 
covered. 

While,  however,  we  may  entirely  agree  with  Lord 
Beaconsfield  in  his  estimate  of  our  territorial  constitu- 
tion, a  conjecture  may  be  hazarded  that  if,  on  any 
point,  his  statesmanship  was  the  dupe  of  his  imagination, 


STATESMAN  AND  OBATOB.  169 

it  was  on  this.     Tn  the  speech  on  the  threshold  of  the 
great  Corn  Law  struggles  of  1846,  he  said  : — 

I  have  now  nearly  concluded  the  observations  which  I  shall  address 
to  the  House.  I  have  omitted  a  great  deal  which  I  wished  to  urge 
upon  the  House,  and  I  sincerely  wish  that  what  I  have  said  had  been 
urged  with  more  ability,  but  I  have  endeavoured  not  to  make  a  mere 
Corn  Law  speech.  I  have  only  taken  corn  as  an  illustration  ;  but  I 
don't  like  my  friends  here  to  enter  upon  that  Corn  Law  debate,  which 
I  suppose  is  impending,  under  a  mistaken  notion  of  the  position  in 
which  they  stand.  I  never  did  rest  my  defence  of  the  Corn  Laws  on 
the  burdens  to  which  land  is  subject.  I  believe  that  there  are  burdens, 
heavy  burdens,  on  the  land;  but  the  land  has  great  honours,  and  he 
who  has  great  honours  must  have  great  burdens.  But  I  wish  them  to 
bear  in  mind  that  their  cause  must  be  sustained  by  great  principles. 
I  venture  feebly  and  slightly  to  indicate  those  principles,  principles  of 
high  policj'-,  on  which  their  system  ought  to  be  sustained.  First, 
without  reference  to  England,  looking  at  all  countries,  I  say  that  it  is 
the  first  duty  of  the  Minister,  and  the  first  interest  of  the  State,  to 
maintain  a  balance  between  the  two  great  branches  of  national  indus- 
try. I  repeat  what  I  have  said  before,  that  in  this  country  there  ai'e 
special  reasons  why  we  should  give  a  preponderance — I  do  not  say  a 
predominance — why  we  should  give  a  preponderance,  for  that  is  the 
proper  and  constitutional  word,  to  the  agricultural  branch ;  and  the 
reason  is,  because  in  England  we  have  a  territorial  constitution.  Yie 
have  thrown  upon  the  land  the  revenues  of  the  Chui-ch,  the  admini- 
stration of  justice,  and  the  estate  of  the  poor ;  and  this  has  been  done, 
not  to  gratify  the  pride  or  pamper  the  luxury  of  the  proprietors  of  the 
land,  but  because  in  a  tei'ritorial  constitution  you,  and  those  whom 
you  have  succeeded,  have  found  the  only  security  for  self-government, 
the  only  barrier  against  that  centralising  system  which  has  taken 
root  in  other  countries.  I  have  always  maintained  these  opinions 
My  constituents  are  not  landlords  ;  they  are  not  aristocrats;  they  are 
not  great  capitalists  they  are  the  children  of  industry  and  toil ;  and 
they  believe,  first,  that  their  material  interests  are  involved  in  a 
system  which  favours  native  industry  by  insuring  at  the  same  time 
real  competition;  but  they  believe  also  that  their  social  and  political 
interests  are  involved  in  a  system  by  which  their  rights  and  liberties 
have  been  guaranteed  ;  and  I  agree  with  them — I  have  the  same  old- 
fashioned  notions. 

At  page  30  of  this  little  volume  will  be  found  a  much 
earlier  speech,  giving  expression  to  the  same  opinions 
in  more    rhetorical    and    glowing  colours.     But  at  a)I 


170  LIFJE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

periods  of  his  life  he  was  fond  of  reverting  to  them, 
and  of  speaking  of  the  country  gentlemen  of  England 
as  the  natural  leaders  of  the  people :  and  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  he  must  have  sometimes  shut  his 
eyes  to  the  effect  of  recent  changes  in  our  political 
and  social  system,  which  have  certainly  weakened, 
though  they  may  not  have  finally  destroyed,  the  foun- 
dations of  the  ancient  regime.  Our  territorial  con- 
stitution grew  up  at  a  time  when  all  property  and  all 
powers  were  territorial,  and  though  of  all  the  forms  in 
which  property  and  power  can  be  embodied,  this  is  pro- 
bably on  the  whole  the  most  beneficial  to  society,  yet 
with  the  development  of  trade  and  commerce,  rival  in- 
terests and  rival  aspirations  are  certain  to  spring  up,  jea- 
lous of  the  privileges  attaching  to  the  ownership  of  land, 
and  severely  critical  on  the  working  of  "  a  territorial 
constitution."  In  England  this  last  has  long  been  de- 
clining in  importance.  Public  offices  and  public  duties 
once  inseparably  connected  with  landed  property,  have 
now  been  severed  from  it.  The  House  of  Commons  is 
no  longer  led  by  members  of  the  territorial  class,  and 
though  forty  years  ago  it  still  presented,  as  it  does  still, 
an  imposing  exterior,  the  shock  given  to  feudal  ideas  by 
the  French  Revolution,  the  reduction  of  aristocratic  in- 
fluence by  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  and  the  enormous 
concurrent  development  of  the  manufacturing  interests, 
have  all  been  working  for  the  degradation  of  that  great 
system,  the  merits  of  which  Lord  Beaconsfield  did  not 
over-estimate,  and  which  has  found  one  of  its  warmest 
eulogists  in  Mr.  Gladstone  himself.* 

Y-   It  is  open  to  doubt   whether  Lord  Beaconsfield  fully 
understood  this.     He  was  loth  to  part  with  the  belief 
that  the  country  gentlemen  of  England  represented  **the 
*  Cf .  p.  65. 


STATESMAN  AND  OBATOJR.  171 

popular  political  confederacy  "  of  this  country,  and  still 
retained  their  ancient  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  labour- 
ing classes.  He  knew  that  evil  tongues  had  come  between 
them,  but  it  is  uncertain  if  he  appreciated  the  full  ex- 
tent of  the  mischief;  and  perhaps  we  ought  to  hope 
that  he  died  in  the  faith  in  which  he  lived,  namely,  that 
the  extension  of  popular  privileges  could  never  be  inju- 
rious to  those  who  deserved  well  of  the  people.  We 
have  not  seen  the  end  yet,  and  Lord  Beaconsfield  may 
have  been  quite  right.  His  prescience  was  rarely  at 
fault.  He  stood  alone  in  his  belief  in  the  Conservative 
working  man.  His  belief  in  a  Conservative  peasantry 
may  prove  equally  well  founded.  But  the  circumstances 
are  not  analogous,  and  one  need  not  be  an  alarmist  to 
think  that  on  this  point  he  may  possibly  have  been 
over  sanguine. 

But  though  he  may  have  miscalculated  the  force  of 
those  hostile  agencies  which  the  nineteenth  century  has 
developed,  it  does  not  follow  that  his  admiration  of  '*  the 
territorial  constitution  "  was  not  well  worthy  of  a  states- 
man. Lord  Beaconsfield  believed  that  the  persons  most 
proper  to  be  entrusted  with  the  exercise  of  local  autho- 
rity and  local  administration  should  naturally  be  looked 
for  in  the  more  conservative  elements  of  society,  which 
have  been  supposed  since  the  days  of  Aristotle  to 
reside  in  the  proprietors  of  the  soil.  He  thought  that 
the  administration  of  justice  and  the  interests  of  the 
poor  were  alike  benefited  by  being  confided  to  the 
hands  of  men  who  had  hereditary  claims  on  the  respect 
and  affection  of  the  people.  Such  a  system,  it  is  said, 
lightens  the  pressure  of  authority  by  the  influence  of 
immemorial  prescription,  and  dignifies  the  receipt  of 
charity  by  imparting  to  it  some  flavour  of  the  kindness 
which  springs  from  a  family  relationship. 


172  LIFJE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

Finally,  without  underrating  the  patriotism  and  self- 
devotion  of  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  classes, 
which  they  have  proved  on  many  memorable  occasions. 
Lord  Beaconsfield  was  of  opinion  that  the  possession  of 
land  intensified  the  love  of  country,  and  invested  it 
with  a  concrete  form  which  commerce  alone  could  not 
supply.  He  thought  that  in  times  of  trouble  more 
fortitude,  resolution,  and  patience  were  to  be  expected 
from  a  territorial  than  from  a  commercial  aristocracy ; 
and  it  was  the  avowed  intention  of  the  Anti-Corn 
Law  Leaders  to  substitute  the  one  for  the  other  in 
this  country,  which  more  than  anything  else  made 
Lord  Beaconsfield  a  Protectionist.  These  views  may 
be  unfashionable.  They  may  be  mistaken.  But  they 
have  a  recognised  locus  standi  in  political  philosophy, 
and  well  become  an  English  statesman. 

On  what  is  now  the  great  question  of  the  day  Lord 
Beaconsfield's  opinions  varied  with  the  course  of  events  ; 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  had  the  settlement  of  the  L*ish 
Question  lain  with  himself  from  forty  to  fifty  years  ago  he 
would  have  arranged  it  on  broad  and  equitable  principles, 
which  would  have  saved  us  all  our  present  difficulties. 
Let  us  never  forget  his  memorable  words  spoken  in  1843  : 
*'  An  alien  Church,  an  absentee  aristocracy,  and  a 
starving  people — that  is  the  Irish  Question.^^  To  estab- 
lish the  Church  of  the  people  in  Ireland,  as  we  have 
established  the  Church  of  the  people  in  Scotland,  was 
his  remedy  for  the  first  grievance  which  lay  at  the 
root  of  the  evil.  How  he  would  have  dealt  with  the 
second  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  it  is  clear  enough 
that  a  resident  Irish  aristocracy,  such  as  the  wealthy 
landed  proprietors  who  lived  almost  entirely  in  England, 
would  have  gone  a  long  way  towards  improving  the  con- 
dition of  Irish  agriculture,  so  as  to  make  starvation,  at 


STATESMAN  AND  ORATOR,  173 

all  events,  impossible.  But  when  tlie  Irish  Question  was 
at  length  taken  up  by  Mr.  Gladstone  it  was  too  late. 
The  Fenian  agitation  had  begun.  And  although,  in 
Mr.  Disraeli's  opinion,  it  was  very  nearly  stamped  out 
when  Mr.  Gladstone  blew  up  the  embers,  it  practically 
made  it  impossible  for  English  statesmen  to  recur  to 
any  such  remedies  as  might  have  been  effective  at  an 
earlier  period.  Mr.  Disraeli  then  said,  Leave  Ireland 
alone.  Between  1848  and  1865  she  had  been  ad- 
vancing steadily  along  the  path  of  social  progress.  The 
Fenian  movement  was  essentially  a  foreign  one,  fanned 
by  bad  management  into  something  much  more  for- 
midable, but  capable  at  one  time  of  being  crushed 
without  any  difficulty.  Natural  causes  had  removed 
some  of  Ireland's  difficulties.  Time,  patience,  and 
perseverance  would  have  done  the  rest.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's Irish  measures  of  1869  and  1870  seemed  to 
Lord  Beaconsfield  not  to  be  the  cure  of  an  old  agita- 
tion so  much  as  the  creation  of  a  new  one. 

It  was  on  ecclesiastical  subjects  that  Lord  Beaconsfield 
was  seen  to  least  advantage.  Of  the  recent  history  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  of  the  true  nature  of  the  ques- 
tions which  separate  her  from  Rome  and  from  Geneva, 
his  knowledge  was  imperfect;  and  his  ideas,  in  con- 
sequence, unlike  those  which  lie  had  formed  on  politics 
and  society,  were  not  original.  He  took  them  from 
those  whom  he  believed  to  be  well  informed  upon  the 
subject,  and  was  sometimes  deceived  by  appearances, 
sometimes  converted  by  clamour,  and  sometimes  made 
the  tool  of  party.  Yet  all  the  time  it  is  difficult  to 
doubt  on  which  side  lay  his  real  sympathies.  The 
natural  bent  of  his  mind  was  to  see  in  the  Catholic 
Church  only  a  continuation  of  the  Jewish,  and  to  re- 
cognise in  her  rites  and  ceremonies  the  legitimate  fulUl- 


174  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

ment  of  those  which  God  had  ordained  in  the  Old 
Testament.  He  tells  us  that  the  Komish  Church 
possesses  '*the  old  learning  as  well  as  the  new."  When 
he  refers  to  the  Papacy  it  is  not  to  condemn  the  Pope, 
but  to  suggest  that  the  visible  head  of  the  Church 
should  have  been  seated,  not  at  Rome,  but  at  Jeru- 
salem. Both  on  the  Monarchy  and  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land the  sentiments  which  he  puts  into  the  mouths  of 
Coningsby  and  Henry  Sidney  are  those  of  Hurrell 
Froude. 

I  believe  that  these,  his  earliest  expressed  opinions, 
were  the  most  congenial  to  his  mind,  as  they  were  cer- 
tainly most  in  harmony  with  the  political  creed,  the  pri- 
mitive Toryism,  which  he  had  adopted.  But  they  were 
not  founded  on  independent  study ;  they  were  not 
built  upon  a  rock,  and  were  liable  to  be  shaken  by  any 
gust  of  popular  passion  which  assailed  them.  No  one 
would  ever  have  thought  it  likely  that  the  author  of 
Sf/bi/  could  support  a  Bill  **  to  put  down  Ritualism  "  ; 
and  we  know  that  Mr.  Disraeli's  first  impulse  was  to 
oppose  it.  But  he  yielded  to  representations  with 
which  his  own  information  did  not  enable  him  to  cope, 
and  made  one  of  the  greatest  mistakes  of  his  life  in 
consequence. 

Again,  when  he  said  with  reference  to  Essays  and 
Reviews  that  he,  too,  was  for  free  enquiry,  but  that  it 
must  be  by  free  enquirers,  he  was  not  en  rapport 
with  the  general  tone  and  temper  of  the  better 
class  of  English  clergy.  Notwithstanding  the  truth 
which  the  words  undoubtedly  contain,  they  jarred 
on  the  ears  of  many  men  who  were  as  orthodox  as 
Lord  Eldon  and  as  firm  believers  in  the  literal  inspi- 
ration of  the  Bible  as  Luther.  The  fact  is,  the  one 
thing  which  he  did  not  thoroughly  understand  in  Eng- 


STATESMAN  AND  OEATOB.  175 

land  was  the  Church.  And  the  clergy,  on  the  ether 
hand,  did  not  understand  him.  This,  unfortunately, 
was  the  source  of  woes  unnumbered  to  the  Conserva- 
tive Party,  for  which  a  large  share  of  the  responsi- 
bility must  undoubtedly  rest  with  Lord  Beaoonsfield. 
He  allowed  himself  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  party 
with  whom  at  the  outset  of  his  career  he  had  no  sym- 
pathy whatever.  But  had  he  been  told  that  the  Public 
Worship  Regulation  Bill  was  not  in  accordance  with 
the  principles  which  "the  descendants  of  the  cavaliers" 
might  be  expected  to  espouse,"^  he  would  have  replied, 
perhaps,  that  since  he  last  appealed  to  those  principles 
"  many  things  had  happened,''  and  that  it  was  useless 
to  galvanize  a  corpse. 

Lord  Beaconsfield,  while  Prime  Minister,  between 
1874  and  1880,  was  frequently  accused  of  attempting 
"to  revive  personal  government."  The  charge  was 
absurd  enough,  but  it  was  eagerly  taken  up  in  certain 
quarters,  and  men  said  it  was  only  what  was  to  be  ex- 
pected from  the  author  of  Coningshy.  Now  what  the 
author  of  Coningshy  had  glanced  at  merely  as  one  mode 
of  escape  from  the  difficulties  created  by  the  Reform 
Bill — difficulties  summed  up  in  the  Duke's  well-known 
question.  How  is  the  King's  Government  to  be  car- 
ried on  ? — was  undoubtedly  something  more  than  the 
revival  of  those  monarchical  functions  which,  since  the 
death  of  William  the  Third  had,  with  the  exception  oi 
one  brief  interval,  been  practically  in  abeyance.  It 
was  nothing  less  than  the  termination  of  Parliamentary 
supremacy  altogether  in  favour  of  a  genuine  mo- 
narchy, controlled  by  journalism,  and  assisted  in  the 
work  of  administration  by  **  a  vast  pile  of  municipal 
and  local  government." 

*  See  Speech  in  House  of  Commons,  Aug.  9,  1843. 


176  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BEACONSIIELD, 

This,  we  must  remember,  is  a  mere  speculation,  not 
meant  for  a  moment  as  a  really  practical  suggestion. 

Representation  is  not  necessarily,  or  even  in  a  principal  sense,  Par- 
liamentary. Parliament  is  not  sitting  at  this  moment,  and  yet  the 
nation  is  represented  in  its  highest  as  -well  as  in  its  most  minute 
interests.  Not  a  grievance  escapes  notice  and  redress.  We  must  not  for- 
get that  a  principle  of  government  is  reserved  for  our  days  that  we  shall 
not  find  in  our  Aristotles,  or  even  in  the  forests  of  Tacitus,  nor  in  our 
Saxon  Wittenagemotes,  nor  in  our  Plantagenet  parliaments.  Opinion 
now  is  supreme,  and  Opinion  speaks  in  print.  The  representation  of 
the  Press  is  far  more  complete  than  the  representation  of  Parliament. 
Parliamentary  representation  was  the  happy  device  of  a  ruder  age,  to 
w^hich  it  was  admirably  adapted ;  an  age  of  semi-civilization,  when 
there  was  a  leading  class  in  the  community ;  but  it  exhibits  many 
symptoms  of  desuetude.  It  is  controlled  by  a  system  of  representa- 
tion more  vigorous  and  comprehensive ;  which  absorbs  its  duties  and 
fulfils  them  more  efficiently,  and  in  which  discussion  is  pursued  on 
fairer  terms,  and  often  with  more  depth  and  infoi-mation. 

He  did  not  think  that  the  settlement  of  1832  was 
likely  to  be  permanent,  and  if  we  were  *' forced  to  revo- 
lution,'^ he  preferred  a  monarchical  to  a  democratic 
revolution.  But  he  was  never  wild  enough  to  imagine 
tliat  personal  government  could  co-exist  with  a  reformed 
House  of  Commons,  and  before  1874  the  question  raised 
in  Cof/i/fr/sb/j  had  been  answered  in  another  way. 

If  the  charge  formally  brought  against  him  in  1879 
was  not  absolutely  meaningless,  it  implied  that  Lord 
Beaconsfield  was  suggesting  to  Her  Majesty  that  she 
should  act  upon  her  own  views  of  foreign  and  domestic 
policy  without  regard  to  the  opinion  of  Parliament. 
Unless  it  meant  as  much  as  this,  it  meant  nothing  at 
all.  But  personal  government  of  this  kind,  either  by 
the  Sovereign  or  the  Minister,  as  Parliament  is  at 
present  constituted,  is  simply  impossible,  unless  the 
Sovereign  is  prepared  to  try  conclusions  with  the  ma- 
jority, and   establish  a  system  under  which   the  defeat 


STATESMAN  AND  OEATOE.  177 

of  the  Government  shall  not  involve  its  resignation. 
If  Lord  Beaconsfield  had  any  such  scheme  as  this  in 
contemplation,  it  is  odd  that  no  trace  of  it  should 
exist  in  the  history  of  one  who  was  three  times  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons  at  the  head  of  a  minority,  and 
once  Prime  Minister.  That  a  minister  in  a  minority 
has  a  right  of  appealing  to  the  people  before  he  resigns 
office,  is  of  course  a  truism,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  held 
office  in  1852,  in  1859,  and  in  1867  on  that  under- 
standing. In  1868  and  1880  he  resigned  before  the 
elections  were  over.  But  this  is  not  the  point  at  issue. 
The  only  Prime  Minister  who  has  ever  seriously  tried 
to  conduct  the  Government  of  this  country  in  the  face 
of  a  hostile  majority  after,  and  not  before,  the  appeal 
to  the  people  has  been  made,  was  not  Lord  Beaconsfield, 
but  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

*  That  Lord  Beaconsfield  was  in  some  respects  the 
slave  of  his  own  fancies  may  perhaps  be  granted  ;  and 
he  may  have  helieved  he  saw  materials  for  a  monar- 
chical revival  where  none  existed.  But  that  he  had  any 
formed  design  as  late  as  1874  for  attempting  to  carry 
it  out,  is  to  my  mind  a  ridiculous  supposition.  That 
the  mere  charge  should  have  been  made,  however,  un- 
doubtedly points  to  what  was  his  chief  defect  as  a 
statesman.  He  was  too  much  under  the  dominion  of 
ideas,  and  allowed  too  little  for  the  force  of  circum- 
stances, which  he  strove  vainly  to  reconcile  with  his 
theories.  The  Times  once  referred  to  the  difficulty  of 
reconciling  Lord  Beaconsfield's  language  with  the 
world  in  which  we  live;  and  the  explanation  is  what  I 
have  already  given,  namely,  that  he  lived  in  two 
worlds,  and  that  he  sometimes  allowed  himself,  in 
talking  to  the  denizens  of  one,  to  use  the  language  of 
the  other.     We  see  the  influence  of   this  tendency  to 

12 


178  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

idealism  in  the  tenacity  with  which  he  clung  to  his 
belief  in  the  stability  of  our  old  rural  system,  after  its 
foundations  had  been  so  severely  shaken  by  the 
severance  of  old  ties,  by  prolonged  agricultural  dis- 
tress, and  by  the  indefatigable  efforts  of  a  sordid  social 
democracy  to  sow  dissension  in  its  ranks.  We  see  it 
in  his  failure,  with  all  his  marvellous  foresight  and 
insight,  to  comprehend  the  moral  change  which  had 
come  over  the  English  people  during  half  a  century  of 
democratic  education,  with  its  pseudo-philanthropy,  its 
maudlin  sensibility,  and  its  Pharisaical  hypocrisy.  He 
knew  what  the  English  people  once  were,  and  he  would 
not  believe  it  possible  that  they  should  suddenly  behave 
like  women  f.nd  children.  He  forgot  that  democracies 
are  very  like  women  in  their  nature ;  generous,  but  im- 
pulsive, passionate,  and  intolerant,  easily  stirred  by 
emotion,  but  seldom  accessible  to  argument;  and  the 
clamour  against  the  Bulgarian  atrocities  for  the  moment 
seems  to  have  confounded  him. 

In  the  region  of  Foreign  Affairs  we  see  the  same 
defect.  In  much  that  he  wrote  about  the  French  Al- 
liance, on  the  occasions  when  he  still  insisted  on 
it  as  a  practical  article  of  our  policy,  he  forgot 
that  since  the  days  when  the  French  Alliance  was  a 
reality,  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  of  almost  con- 
stant hostility  had  intervened;  that  the  system 
under  which  France  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  natural 
enemy  of  England,  had  been  rivetted  on  this  country 
by  the  Whigs,  and  clinched  by  the  Revolutionary  war. 
He  forgot  that  the  Bourbons  could  never  forgive  us  after 
the  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  or  the  loss  of  India, 
or  the  loss  of  Canada.  He  forgot  that  with  the 
decline  of  Spain  and  Holland,  France  succeeded  to  their 
place  as  the  great    maritime  rival    of  Great    Britain, 


STATESMAN  AND  OBATOB.  179 

while  in  the  meantime  our  connection  with  Germany 
had  been  relieved  of  its  old  burdens  and  strengthened  by 
many  new  ties. 

I  have  already  said  that  these  beliefs  and  specu- 
lations had  but  little  influence  on  his  practical  policy, 
and  it  may  be  thought,  therefore,  that  they  had 
no  result  at  all,  and  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  say 
anything  about  them.  But  that  is  not  exactly  true, 
for  they  flavoured  Lord  Beaconsfield's  language  when 
they  did  not  affect  his  conduct,  and  imparted  a  some- 
"~*^hat  fanciful  character  to  what,  stripped  of  these  gar- 
ments, was  often  very  plain  common-sense.  This,  to 
some  extent  retarded  his  rise  in  life,  and  made  those 
"  sober  politicians,"  whose  voice  in  the  long  run  is 
always  in  this  country  decisive,  distrust  and  underrate 
him.  This  peculiarity  in  a  statesman  whose  lot  is  cast 
in  a  country  governed  by  popular  institutions,  is  certainly 
a  defect,  which  all  Lord  Beaconsfield's  marvellous  power 
of  keeping  his  imagination  under  the  control  of  his 
reason  in  the  practical  conduct  of  aff"airs  was  unable  to 
completely  neutralise. 

It  may  be  added,  in  conclusion,  that  Lord  Beacons- 
field  was,  perhaps,  the  first  to  perceive  that  one  result  w 
of  the  overthrow  of  the  old  constitution  must  be  to  throw  A 
great  additional  power  into  the  hands  of  individuals. 
He  had  hoped,  no  doubt,  that  the  individual  to  profit 
by  the  tendency  would  be  the  Sovereign.  Events  have 
given  the  power  to  the  Minister,  who,  with  a  House 
of  Commons'  majority,  at  the  present  day  approaches 
far  more  nearly  to  the  position  of  a  dictator  than 
ever  he  did  under  the  old  system.  Then  both  the 
Sovereign,  and  the  aristocracy  through  their  nominees, 
possessed  some  control  over  him.  But  now  they  can 
exercise  none ;  and  Members  of  Parliament  returned  to 

12  * 


180         LIFE  OF  LORD  BFACONSFIELD. 

support  him  by  numerous  popular  constituencies,  even 
if  popular  opinion  runs  against  liim  at  a  particular 
moment,  will  scarcely  give  a  hostile  vote,  because  the 
fickleness  of  a  purely  democratic  electorate  is  so  great 
that  they  can  never  tell  how  soon  the  wind  may  change, 
and  the  majority  veer  round  again  to  their  former 
unqualified  allegiance.  When  a  great  noble  saw  cause 
to  withdraw  his  support  from  the  Government  of  the 
day  it  was  not  till  after  due  consideration,  and  his 
resolution  was  probably  permanent.  But  that  is  not  the 
case  with  a  great  popular  constituency;  and,  though  on 
occasions  of  exceptional  magnitude  and  rare  occurrence 
members  will  still,  as  ever,  act  for  themselves  in  spite  of 
all  party  obligation ;  still  in  ordinary  times  there  is 
nothing  now  behind  the  House  of  Commons  which  a 
minister  has  to  fear  during  his  seven  years  of  office, 
compared  with  what  there  was  formerly,  and,  in  this 
sense  of  the  word,  personal  government  has  resulted 
Irom  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  great  measure  for  the 
extension  of  popular  power. 

As  an  orator.  Lord  Beaconsfield  stands  high,  but  not 
perhaps  in  the  first  class.  If  he  does  it  is  in  the  class 
to  which  Pitt  and  Grenville  belonged;  not  to  that 
which  is  peopled  by  Chatham,  Fox  and  Canning.  If 
to  the  highest  level  of  oratory  a  certain  fire  and  im- 
petuosity is  indispensable — that  white  heat  which  is 
sometimes  perceptible  in  Mr.  Gladstone,  that  boiling 
torrent  of  words  which  his  contemporaries  admired  in 
Mr.  Fox — then  to  this  level  Lord  Beaconsfield  did  not 
attain.  But  if  we  consider  not  inferior  to  this  the  more 
stately  and  measured  eloquence,  calm  and  proud,  and 
over-mastering  us  with  the  sense  of  power,  which  tradition 
ascribes  to  the  first  two  statesmen  I  have  named,  did  Lord 
Beaconsfield  attain  to  this  ?  Nearer  certainly  than  to  the 


STATESMAN  AND  OUATOB.  181 

other.  In  some  of  the  speeches  especially  which  he  de- 
livered after  his  retirement  from  office  in  1880,  there  is 
a  tone  of  mingled  gravity  and  dignity,  well  befitting  the 
political  veteran,  which  is  deeply  impressive,  and  often 
recalls  to  us  what  we  have  heard  of  the  manner  of  Mr. 
Pitt.  A  good  specimen  is  the  close  of  his  speech  on 
the  Address  in  January  1881,  when  the  Government 
which  had  abandoned  the  Peace  Preservation  Act,  to 
mark  their  sense  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  mis-government, 
came  down  to  Parliament  and  asked  for  similar  power 
for  themselves.  Lord  Beaconsfield,  after  commenting 
severely  on  their  conduct,  proceeded  as  follows : — 

It  may  be  said,  If  these  are  your  views,  why  do  you  not  call  upon 
Parliament  to  express  them  ?  Well,  I  do  not  know  anything  which 
would  be  more  justifiable  than  an  amendment  to  the  Address  ex- 
pressing our  deep  regret  that  measures  for  maintaining  peace  and 
order,  for  guarding  life  and  property,  and,  let  me  add,  liberty,  which, 
I  think,  is  equally  in  danger  in  Ireland,  were  not  taken  in  time,  and 
pointing  out  that  if  such  measures  had  been  taken  in  time,  an  enormous 
number  of  terrible  incidents  might  have  been  averted  ;  that  men  would 
now  have  been  alive  who  have  been  murdered ;  that  houses  would  now 
have  been  in  existence  that  have  been  burned ;  that  cases  of  torture  to 
man  and  beast  would  never  have  happened— for  these  things,  as  your 
Lordships  are  aware,  have  mainly  occurred  within  the  past  two  months. 
But,  my  Lord,  there  are  occasions  when  even  party  considerations  must 
be  given  up.  There  are  occasions  when  it  may  not  be  wise,  even  for 
your  Lordships,  to  place  yourselves,  as  it  were,  at  the  head  of  public 
opinion  in  indignant  remonstrance  at  the  action  of  the  Ministiy.  The 
great  dangers  and  disasters  which  have  been  impending,  or  have  hap- 
pened in  this  country  during  the  past  nine  months,  have  arisen  from 
the  abuse  of  party  feehng  ;  and  for  that  reason  alone,  if  there  were 
no  other,  I  would  recommend  your  Lordships  to  pause  before  taking 
any  step  which  would  weaken  the  movements  of  the  Administration  at 
this  moment.  I  conclude  that  the  Government  have  come  to  their 
determination  in  a  bond  fide  spirit.  I  expect  that  their  Bills  when 
introduced  will  be  found  adequate  to  the  occasion,  for  I  am  convinced 
that  only  ridicule  will  result  if  they  are  not  conceived  in  a  compre- 
hensive spirit.  I  conclude,  also,  that  it  is  now  their  intention  to  pro- 
ceed with  these  Bills  de  die  in  diem,  in  order  that  some  hope,  some 


182  LIFE  OF  LOED  BEACONSFIELD. 

courage,  may  be  given  to  our  loyal  and  long-suffering  subjects  in  Ire- 
land. When  those  Bills  have  been  passed,  we  shall  be  ready  to  con- 
sider any  other  measures  which  Her  Majesty's  Government  may  bring 
before  Parliament.  But  I  think  it  utter  mockery  to  discuss  any  ques- 
tions connected  with  Ireland  now,  except  the  restoration  of  peace  and 
order,  the  re-establishment  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  Queen,  and  a 
pohcy  that  will  announce  to  Europe  that  the  spirit  of  England  has  not 
ceased,  and  that,  great  as  are  the  changes  that  now  environ  Ministers, 
the  Parliament  of  England  will  be  equal  to  the  occasion. 

Another  example  may  be  quoted  from  his  speech  on 
the  evacuation  of  Candahar  in  the  following  March, 
only  six  weeks  before  his  death  : — 

My  opinion  is  that,  though  such  places  may  not  be  essential  to  us, 
yet  that  I  should  regret  to  see  any  great  military  Power  in  possession 
of  them.  I  should  look  upon  such  an  event  with  regret,  and  perhaps 
with  some  degree  of  apprehension ;  but  if  the  great  military  Power 
were  there,  I  trust  we  might  still  be  able  to  maintain  our  Empire. 
But,  my  Lords,  the  key  of  India  is  not  Herat  or  Candahar.  The  key 
of  India  is  in  London.  The  majesty  and  sovereignty,  the  spirit  and 
vigour  of  your  Parliament,  the  inexhaustible  resources,  the  ingenuity,, 
and  determination  of  your  people — these  are  the  keys  of  India. 

But  a  better  example  still,  perhaps,  may  be  found  in  a 
much  earlier  speech,  one  delivered  in  May  1865,  on  the 
Borough  Franchise ;  and  it  is  perhaps  the  best  example 
of  his  graver  style  of  eloquence  that  can  be  cited. 

Between  the  scheme  we  brought  forward  (t.e.  1859)  and  the  measure 
now  brought  forward  by  the  honourable  member  for  Leeds,  and  the 
inevitable  conclusion  which  its  principal  supjDorters  acknowledge  it 
must  lead  to,  it  is  a  question  between  an  aristocratic  government,  in 
the  proper  sense  of  the  term — that  is,  a  government  by  the  best 
men  of  all  classes — and  a  democracy.  I  doubt  very  much  whether 
a  democracy  is  a  government  that  would  suit  this  country;  and  it 
is  just  as  w^ell  that  the  House,  when  coming  to  a  vote  on  this 
question,  should  really  consider  if  that  be  the  issue — and  it  is  the 
real  issue,  between  retaining  the  present  Constitution,  not  the  present 
constituent  body,  but  between  the  present  Constitution  and  a  demo- 
cracy— it  is  just  as  well  for  the  House  to  recollect  that  the  stake  is 
not  mean,  that  what  is  at  issue  is  of  some  price.  You  must  remem- 
ber, not  to  use  the  epithet  profanely,  that  we  are  dealing  really  with 
a  peculiar  people.     There  is  no  country  at  the  present  moment  that 


STATESMAN  AND  OBATOB,  183 

exists  under  the  circumstances  and  under  the  same  conditions  as  the 
people  of  this  realm.  You  have,  for  example,  an  ancient,  powerful, 
richly-endowed  Church  and  perfect  religious  libei'ty.  You  have  un- 
broken order  and  complete  freedom.  You  have  landed  estates  as 
large  as  the  Romany,  combined  with  commercial  enterprise  such  as 
Carthage  and  Venice  united  never  equalled.  And  you  must  remember 
that  this  peculiar  country,  with  these  strong  contrasts,  is  not  governed 
by  force;  it  is  not  governed  by  standing  armies,  it  is  governed  by  a  most 
singular  series  of  traditionary  influences  which,  generation  after  gene- 
ration, cherishes  and  preserves,  because  it  knows  that  they  embalm 
custom  and  represent  law.  And,  with  this,  what  have  you  done  ? 
You  have  created  the  greatest  Empire  of  modern  time.  You  have 
amassed  a  capital  of  fabulous  amount,  you  have  devised  and  sustained 
a  system  of  credit  still  more  marvellous,  and,  above  all,  you  have 
established  and  maintained  a  scheme  of  labour  and  industry  so  vast 
and  complicated  that  the  history  of  the  world  has  no  parallel  to  it. 
And  all  these  mighty  creations  are  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  essen- 
tial and  indigenous  elements  and  resources  of  the  country.  If  you  de- 
stroy that  state  of  society,  remember  this — England  cannot  begin  again. 
There  are  countries  which  have  been  in  great  danger,  and  gone 
through  great  suffering — the  United  States,  for  example,  whose  for- 
tunes are  now  so  perilous,  and  who,  in  our  own  immediate  day,  have 
had  great  trials  ;  you  have  had — perhaps  even  now  in  the  United 
States  of  America  you  have — a  protracted  and  fratricidal  civil  war, 
which  has  lasted  for  four  years  ;  but  if  it  lasted  for  four  years  more, 
vast  as  would  be  the  disaster  and  desolation,  when  ended  the  United 
States  might  begin  again,  because  the  United  States  then  would  only 
be  in  the  same  condition  that  England  was  at  the  end  of  the  War  of 
the  Roses,  when  probably  she  had  not  even  3,000,000  of  population, 
with  vast  tracts  of  virgin  soil  and  mineral  treasures,  not  only  unde- 
veloped, but  undreamt  of.  Then  you  have  Franco.  France  had  a 
real  revolution  in  this  century — a  real  revolution,  not  only  a  political, 
but  a  social  revolution,  the  institutions  of  the  country  were  uprooted, 
the  orders  of  society  were  abolished — even  the  landmarks  and  local 
names  removed  and  erased.  But  France  could  begin  again.  France 
had  the  greatest  spread  of  the  most  exuberant  soil  in  Europe,  and  a 
climate  not  less  genial.  She  had,  and  always  had,  comparatively,  a 
limited  population,  living  in  the  most  simple  manner.  France,  there- 
fore, could  begin  again.  But  England — the  England  we  know,  the 
England  we  live  in,  the  England  of  which  we  are  proud — could  not 
begin  again." 

These,  and  other  passages  which  might  be  quoted, 
flash  out  great  Uruths,  and  elevated   sentiments  in  the 


184  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

language  most  appropriate  to  them,  the  language  of 
perfect  simplicity.  But  Lord  Beaconsfield  at  the  same 
time  was  a  great  master  of  rhetoric,  and  some  of  his 
greatest  effects  were  produced  by  the  dexterous  employ- 
ment of  it.  His  description  of  the  landed  interest  in 
1849,  which  has  been  already  quoted,*  is  a  good  illustra- 
tion of  his  powers. 

Another  highly-wrought  passage  is  the  peroration  to 
that  speech  of  1848  which,  as  stated  above,t  secured 
him  the  leadership  of  his  party  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  subject  is  the  failure  of  legislative  power 
in  that  Assembly,  which  the  orator  attributes  to  the 
absence  of  authority  in  the  Government,  and  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  House  into  a  number  of  small  cliques. 

After  all  their  deliberations,  after  all  their  foresight,  after  all  their 
observation  of  the  times,  after  all  their  study  of  the  public  interest, 
when  their  measures  are  launched  from  the  Cabinet  into  this  House, 
they  are  not  received  here  by  a  confiding  majority — confiding,  I  mean, 
in  their  faith  in  the  statesmanlike  qualifications  of  their  authors,  and 
in  their  sympathy  with  the  great  political  principles  professed  by  the 
members  of  the  administration.  On  the  contrary,  the  success  of  their 
measiires  in  this  House  depends  on  a  variety  of  small  parties,  who,  in 
their  aggregate,  exceed  in  number  and  influence  the  party  of  the 
ministers.  The  temper  of  one  leader  has  to  be  watched  ;  the  indica- 
tion of  the  opinion  of  another  has  to  be  observed  ;  the  disposition  of  a 
third  has  to  be  suited  ;  so  that  a  measure  is  so  altered,  remoulded, 
remodelled,  patched,  cobbled,  painted,  veneered,  and  varnished,  that 
at  last  no  trace  is  left  of  the  original  scope  and  scheme ;  or  it  is  with- 
drawn in  disgust  by  its  originators,  after  having  been  subjected  to 
prolonged  and  elaborate  discussions  in  this  House. 

Men  in  their  situation  will  naturally  say,  "What  is  the  use  of  taking 
all  these  pains,  of  bestowing  all  this  care,  study,  and  foresight  on  the 
preparation  of  a  measure,  when  the  moment  it  is  out  of  our  hands  it 
ceases  to  be  the  measure  of  the  Cabinet,  and  becomes  essentially  the 
measure  of  the  House  of  Commons  ?  "  And,  therefore,  measures  are 
thrown  before  us  with  the  foregone  conclusion  that  we  are  to  save  the 
Administration  much  care  and  trouble  in  preparing  the  means  of 
governing  the  country.     Thus  it  happens  that  the  House  of  Commons, 

*  P.  71.  t  P.  69. 


STATESMAN  AND  OUATOE,  185 

instead  of  being  a  purely  legislative  body,  is  every  day  becoming  a 
mere  administrative  assembly.  The  House  of  Commons,  as  now  con- 
ducted, is  a  great  committee,  sitting  on  public  affairs,  in  which  every 
man  speaks  with  the  same  right,  and  most  of  us  with  the  same 
weight :  no  more  the  disciplined  array  of  traditional  influences  and 
hereditary  opinions — the  realised  experience  of  ancient  society  and  of 
a  race  that  for  generations  has  lived  and  flourished  in  the  high  prac- 
tice of  a  noble  system  of  self-government — that  is  all  past.  For  these 
the  future  is  to  provide  us  with  a  compensatory  alternative  in  the 
conceits  of  the  illiterate,  the  crotchets  of  the  whimsical,  the  violent 
courses  of  a  vulgar  ambition,  that  acknowledges  no  gratitude  to  anti- 
quity, to  posterity  no  duty  ;  until  at  last  this  free  and  famous  Parlia- 
ment of  England  is  to  subside  to  the  low-water  mark  of  those  national 
assemblies  and  those  provisional  conventions  that  are  at  the  same 
time  the  terror  and  the  derision  of  the  world. 

But  undoubtedly  when  we  think  of  Lord  Beaconsfield 
as  an  orator,  we  think  rather  of  his  wit,  his  humour, 
and  his  sarcasms,  than  of  his  higher  and  more  serious 
flights  of  eloquence.  On  the  lower  ground  he  has  no 
superior,  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  he  ever  had  an  equal. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  preserve  the  spirit  and  flavour  of 
eloquence  of  this  description  when  the  circumstances 
which  gave  it  point  and  purpose  have  either  lost  interest 
or  are  totally  forgotten.  Even  Townsend's  **  champagne 
speech,"  now  that  the  cork  has  been  drawn  so  long,  would 
probably  read  very  flat  could  we  have  it  restored  in  its 
integrity.  And  so  it  is  with  some  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's 
most  celebrated  witticisms,  and  still  more  with  that 
matchless  vein  of  irony  in  which  he  loved  to  address  the 
members  of  the  hated  *'  coalition.'*  To  give  any  fair 
idea  of  its  quality  we  should  have  to  quote  whole  speeches, 
since  the  effect  is  often  not  produced  by  felicitous 
images  or  pungent  epigrams,  but  by  one  continuous 
flow  of  elaborate  mockery,  which  does  not  admit  of 
being  broken  up,  and  which  cannot  be  appreciated  even 
as  it  stands  without  a  minute  acquaintance  with  the 
political  and  Parliamentary  circumstances  to  which  it  is 


186  LIFE  OF  LOJRD  BEAGONSFIFLD. 

addressed.  For  such  as  wish  to  judge  for  themselves,  I 
may  mention  his  speech  of  February  18tb,  1853,  as 
perhaps  the  most  perfect  specimen  of  the  kind  I  have 
already  mentioned. 

I  have  quoted,  at  p.  61,  perhaps  the  finest  of  all  his 
sarcasms  levelled  at  Sir  Robert  Peel.  But  one  more 
must  still  be  added :  — 


Sir,  I  must  say  that  such  a  Minister  may  be  conscientious,  but  that 
he  is  unfortunate.  I  will  say,  also,  that  he  ought  to  be  the  last  man 
in  the  world  to  turn  round  and  upbraid  his  party  in  a  tone  of  menace. 
Sir,  there  is  a  difficulty  in  finding  a  parallel  to  the  position  of  the 
right  honourable  gentleman  in  any  part  of  history.  The  only 
parallel  which  I  can  find  is  an  incident*  in  the  late  war  in  the 
Levant,  which  was  terminated  by  the  policy  of  the  noble  lord 
opposite.  I  remember  when  that  great  struggle  was  taking 
place,  when  the  existence  of  the  Turkish  empire  was  at  stake, 
the  late  Saltan,  a  man  of  great  energy  and  fertile  in  resources, 
Avas  determined  to  fit  out  an  immense  fleet  to  maintain  his 
empire.  Accordingly  a  vast  armament  was  collected.  It  consisted  of 
some  of  the  finest  ships  that  were  ever  built.  The  crews  were  picked 
men,  the  officers  were  the  ablest  that  could  be  found,  and  both  ofiicers 
and  men  were  rewarded  before  they  fought.  There  never  was  an 
armament  which  left  the  Dardanelles  similarly  appointed  since  the 
days  of  Solyman  the  Great.  The  Sultan  personally  witnessed  the 
departure  of  the  fleet ;  all  the  muftis  prayed  for  the  success  of  the 
expedition,  as  all  the  muftis  here  prayed  for  the  success  of  the  last 
General  Election.  Away  went  the  fleet,  but  what  was  the  Sultan's 
consternation,  when  the  Lord  High  Admiral  steered  at  once  into  the 
enemy's  port !  Now,  Sir,  the  Lord  High  Admiral  on  that  occasion 
was  very  much  misrepresented.  He,  too,  was  called  a  traitor,  and  he, 
too,  vindicated  himself.  "  True  it  is,"  he  said,  "  I  did  place  myself  at 
the  head  of  this  valiant  armada  :  true  it  is  that  my  Sovereign  em- 
braced me  ;  true  it  is  that  all  the  muftis  in  the  empire  offered  up 
prayers  for  my  success  :  but  I  have  an  objection  to  war.  I  see  no  use 
in  prolonging  the  struggle,  and  the  only  reason  I  had  for  accepting  the 
command  was  that  I  might  terminate  the  contest  by  betraying  my 
master." 

*  The  delivery  of  the  Turkish  Fleet  to  Mehemet  Ali  by  Achmet 
Pasha,  the  Turkish  High  Admiral,  June  30th   1839 


•    STATESMAN  AND  OBATOB.  187 

With  one  more  quotation  I  must  hasten  to  con- 
elude  this  chapter.  It  is  from  a  speech  delivered 
at  Edinburgh  in  October  1867,  which  was  an  ex- 
haustive presentation  of  his  case  on  Parliamentary 
Keform : — 

I  see  many  gentlemen  here  who  have  been,  no  doubt,  inspectors  like 
myself,  as  magistrates,  of  peculiar  asylums,  who  meet  there  some 
cases  which  I  have  thought  at  the  same  time  the  most  absurd  and  the 
most  distressing ;  it  is  when  the  lunatic  beUeves  all  the  world  is  mad, 
and  that  he  himself  is  sane.  But  to  pass  from  such  gloomy  imagery, 
really  these  "  Edinburgh  "  and  "  Quarterly  "  Reviews,  no  man  admires 
them  more  than  myself.  But  1  admire  them  as  I  do  first-rate,  first- 
class  posting-houses,  which  in  old  days  for  half  a  century  or  so — to  use 
Manchester  phrase — carried  on  a  roaring  trade.  Then  there  comes 
some  revolution  or  progress  which  no  person  can  ever  have  contem- 
plated. They  find  things  are  altered.  They  do  not  understand  them, 
and  instead  of  that  intense  competition  and  mutual  vindictiveness 
which  before  distinguished  them,  they  suddenly  quite  agree.  The 
*' boots"  of  the  "Blue  Boar"  and  the  chamber-maid  of  the  "Red 
Lion  "  embrace,  and  are  quite  in  accord  in  this — in  denouncing  the 
infamy  of  railroads. 

Between  the  effect  of  this  raillery,  when  delivered  by 
the  orator  himself  with  all  the  advantages  of  voice,  eye, 
and  gesture,  when  the  subject-matter  of  it  was  a  topic 
of  daily  conversation,  and  the  effect  of  it  reproduced  in 
print  twenty  years  afterwards,  the  difference  is  almost 
as  great  as  between  a  living  man  and  his  portrait. 
Quid  si  ijjstim  ioiiantem  aiidivisses.  The  difference 
is  peculiarly  marked  in  passages  of  wit  and  humour 
arising  out  of  temporary  incidents,  and  dependent  for 
their  flavour  on  their  freshness. 


188  LIF^  OF  LOUD  BEAGONSFIELB. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

LOBD    BEACONSFIELD    AS    A    MAN    OF    LETTERS. 

Lord  Beaconsfield's  works — His  earlier  novels — Plots  of  Conine/shy 
and  Sybil — Tancred,  Lothair  and  Endymion — Three  prose  bur- 
lesques— Political  writings — Lord  Beaconslield's  style. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  was  the  author  of  eleven  novels, 
namely,  Vivian  Grey  published  in  181^6,  the  Young 
Duke  in  1831,  Contarini  Flemwg  in  1832,  The  Won- 
drous Tale  of  Ah'oij  in  1833,  Henrietta  Temple  in  1836, 
Venetia  in  1837,  Coningshy  in  1844,  Sybil  in  1845, 
Tancred  in  1847,  Lothair  in  1870,  and  Endymion  in 
1880.  Besides  these  he  published  the  Rise  of  hUander 
in  1833,  the  Revolutionary  Epic  in  1834,  and  Count 
Alar  cos  y  a  tragedy,  in  1839.  His  three  burlesques, 
namely,  Vopanilla^  Ixion  in  Heaven,  and  the  Infernal 
Marriage^  were  given  to  the  world  between  1828  and 
1833.  The  political  pamphlets  which  bear  his  name 
appeared  in  the  following  order: — Wluat  is  He?  in  1833, 
The  Crisis  Examined  in  1834,  Tlie  Vindication  oj 
the  British  Constitution  in  1835,  and  the  Letters  of 
Runnymede  and  the  Sjn'rit  of  Whiggisni  in  1836.  In 
1852  appeared  his  Life  of  Lord  George  Bent  inch. 

Vivian  Grey  as  the  production  of  a  youth  of  one  and 
twenty,  has  been  deservedly  -extolled,  and  at  the  time  of 
its  publication  its  originality  and  its  audacity  took  the 
world  by  storm.     But  we  have  got  used  to  Lord  Bea- 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  189 

consfield  since  then,  and  Viviafi  Greijy  which  amazed 
his  contemporaries,  is  not  so  entertaining  to  ourselves. 
It  has  no  plot  deserving  of  the  name,  and  the  political 
intrigues  described  in  it  betray  the  age  and  inexperience 
of  the  writer,  and  are  almost  unreadable  at  the  present 
day.  What  reraains  is  a  dashing  smartness  and  neat- 
ness in  the  dialogue,  and  some  brilliant  bits  of  social 
satire,  derived,  however,  more  from  books  than  from 
nature,  and  only  showing  by  their  popularity  the  low 
ebb  to  which  fashionable  fiction  must  have  fallen  sixty 
years  ago.  Mrs.  Felix  Lorraine  and  Cleveland,  the 
wicked  intriguante  and  the  disappointed,  half-maddened 
politician,  are  the  two  best  characters  in  the  book.  To 
one  who  is  not  depicted  in  the  brightest  colours  he, 
curiously  enough,  assigns  the  title  of  Lord  Beaconsfield. 
In  the  latter  part  of  it,  the  scene  is  laid  entirely  abroad. 
There  are  some  amusing  sketches  of  the  gaming  tables. 
But  the  story  is  silently  dropped,  and  the  hero  disappears 
in  a  deluge. 

The  Young  Diihe  is  inferior  to  Vivian  Grey  in  that 
particular  quality  for  which  we  can  find  no  better  name 
than  *'  rattle,"  and  which  carries  off  a  multitude  of  errors. 
But  it  is  a  better  story  and  introduces  us  to  more  inte- 
resting people.  It  is  a  specimen  of  what  used  to  be  called 
the  novel  of  high  life — the  noble  young  millionaire 
who  spends  half  his  fortune  in  licentious  dissipation, 
and,  when  he  is  tired  of  it,  settles  down  respectably  on  the 
remainder,  and  marries  a  girl  much  too  good  for  him. 

Of  his  earlier  novels,  Contarini  Fleming^  I  think,  is 
decidedly  the  best.  Uenjant  incompris  is  a  character 
of  which,  in  most  hands,  one  soon  grows  weary.  But 
in  the  analysis  of  passion  and  the  development  of 
character  presented  to  us  in  Contarini  Fleinifig,  there  is 
such  a  vivid  reality,  that  it  reads  like  a  personal  ex- 


190  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD, 

perience,  as,  for  what  we  know,  it  may  be.  In  the  in- 
cidents and  plot  there  is  nothing  incredible  or  fantastic. 
The  love  scenes  are  natural  and  touching,  and  it  seems 
to  afford  much  better  evidence  of  the  author's  intellectual 
power  than  either  of  its  two  predecessors. 

The  Wondrous  Tale  of  Alroij  is  an  Oriental  fiction 
founded  on  aHebrevv  tradition  concerning  the  **  Princes  of 
tlie  Captivity  " — rulers  whom  the  Jews  continued  lo  elect 
from  among  the  descendants  of  the  House  of  David  even 
after  the  dispersion.  Alroy  is  one  of  them,  who,  after 
a  long  interregnum^  possessing  himself,  by  supernatural 
assistance,  of  the  sceptre  of  Solomon,  establishes  the 
Hebrew  monarchy  on  the  ruins  of  the'Caliphate  of  Bag- 
dad. His  life  is  of  course  short,  and  his  reign  much 
shorter.  But  his  adventures  are  told  with  great  spirit. 
The  whole  narrative  is  brilliantly  coloured ;  and  in  tales 
of  this  kind,  in  which  heroes  compel  genii  to  do  their 
bidding,  and  we  pass  backwards  and  forwards  from  the 
natural  to  the  supernatural  by  such  frequent  and  easy 
transitions  that  we  hardly  know  one  from  the  other, 
nothing,  of  course,  can  be  called  either  monstrous  or 
extravagant. 

The  Rise  of  Iskafider  i%  a  tale  of  the  Turkish  wars  of 
Amurath  II.,  and  on  reading  it  through  a  second  time, 
I  find  I  have  nothing  to  say  about  it.  It  is  short  and 
interesting  enough  for  an  ordinary  magazine  story. 

An  interval  of  four  years  separates  Alroy  from  Lord 
Beaconsfield's  next  work  of  fiction,  which  is  a  marked 
advance  on  his  more  juvenile  productions.  Henrietta 
Temple,  indeed,  is  of  his  non-political  novels  by  far  the 
best.  The  love  passages  remind  one  of  Romeo  and  Juliet ^ 
and  the  scene  in  the  sponging-house  might  have  been 
written  by  Fielding.  The  picture  of  the  ancient  family, 
proud  in  their  decay,  and  clinging  with  desperate  tena- 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS,  191 

city  to  their  mortgaged  estates,  is  an  interesting  and 
touching  one.  It  has  been  said  that  Count  Mirabel 
was  a  bad  portrait  of  Count  D'Orsay. 

Venetia  is  chiefly  remarkable  as  an  attempt  "  to 
shadow  forth,  though  as  in  a  glass  darkly,  two  of  the 
most  renowned  and  refined  spirits  that  have  adorned 
these  our  latter  days."  The  two  are  Byron  and  Shelley. 
Had  these  been  likenesses,  the  novel  would  have  been 
better  known.  But  the  attempt  to  reproduce  literary 
characters  in  novels  has  rarely  been  successful.  Kings, 
statesmen,  and  soldiers  are  men  of  action,  and  lend 
themselves  readily  to  all  the  requirements  of  fiction. 
But  in  the  case  of  men  of  letters,  it  is  what  they  thought, 
not  what  they  did,  which  requires  to  be  reproduced  if 
the  picture  is  to  interest  us.  To  describe  such  men 
merely  by  their  external  characteristics  or  habits  is  to 
trifle  with  the  reader.  The  attempt  to  imitate  their  con- 
versation betrays,  generally  speaking,  only  the  inferiority 
of  the  imitator.  Byron's  actions,  no  doubt,  afford  plenty 
of  materials  for  romance;  but  then  it  is  impossible  to 
separate  the  champion  of  the  Greeks,  from  tbe  satirist 
of  the  English,  or  the  practical  philanthropist  from  the 
literary  misanthrope.  Ve/ietia,  on  the  whole,  is  per- 
haps, the  least  interesting  of  all  Mr.  Disraeli's  fictions. 

With  Coningshy  and  Sybil  we  turn  over  a  new  chapter 
in  Mr.  Disraeli's  literary  career.  He  now  reverts  to 
ihe  political  novel  which  he  had  essayed  twenty  years 
before,  and  very  wisely  relinquished  till  he  had  ac- 
quired some  actual  experience  of  the  men  and  manners 
to  be  depicted.  His  object  in  these  celebrated  works 
was  simply  to  reproduce,  in  the  form  of  fiction,  those 
political  and  constitutional  theories  which  he  had  origi- 
nally toucbed  in  the  letters  and  essays  to  which  I  shall 
presently  revert.      What  these   were   has  already  been 


192  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEACONSFIFLD, 

sufficiently  explained.  We  have  now  only  to  consider 
the  literary  and  dramatic  merit  with  which  they  were  in- 
troduced to  "the  new  generation." 

The  plot  in  Goningshy  is,  I  think,  Mr.  Disraeli's  best, 
the  secret  being  well  kept,  and  the  catastrophe  and  de- 
noueme?it  both  skilfully  contrived.  The  story  has,  in 
part,  been  anticipated.*  The  hero  is  introduced  to  us 
while  he  is  still  a  boy  at  Eton,  in  that  memorable 
month  of  May  1832,  when  Lord  Lyudhurst  and  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  were  engaged  in  the  last  expiring 
effort  of  the  Tory  Party  to  defeat  the  W^hig  Reform 
Bill.  His  grandfather,  the  Marquis  of  Monmouth, 
returns  to  England  as  Coningsby  is  leaving  Eton  in 
1836,  and  our  young  hero  en  route  for  Coningsby 
Castle,  pays  a  visit  to  his  friend  Lord  H.  Sidney  at 
Beaumanoir  (Belvoir).  On  his  way  from  Beaumanoir 
to  Coningsby,  he  visits  Manchester  and  the  factories  of 
Millbank  senior,  who  invites  him  to  dinner,  and  intro- 
duces him  to  his  daughter,  a  beautiful  girl  of  sixteen. 

To  amuse  his  guests  at  Coningsby,  among  whom  are 
numbered  the  Prince  and  Princess  Colonna  and  their 
daughter  Lucretia,  the  Marquis  engages  a  company  of 
French  actors,  under  the  management  of  Villebecque, 
whose  daughter  Flora  makes  her  first  appearance  on 
the  castle  stage.  Flora  is  a  pretty  delicate  girl,  who 
breaks  down  as  an  actress,  but  remains  as  a  kind  of 
companion  to  the  Princess  Lucretia,  and  experiences 
many  little  acts  of  kindness  at  the  hands  of  Coningsby, 
who  often  noticed,  and  endeavoured  to  relieve,  the 
somewhat  awkward  and  forlorn  position  in  which  she 
found  herself. 

Having  introduced  the  principal  persons,  the  re- 
mainder of  our  sketch  may  be  shortened.  There  is  a 
*  p.  40. 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  193 

long-standing  feud  between  the  Marquis  and  Mr.  Mill- 
bank,  who  beats  Rigby  for  the  Marquis's  pocket 
borough,  steps  in  and  buys  an  estate  on  which  he  had 
set  his  heart,  and  thwarts  and  annoys  him  in  every  pos- 
sible manner.  Coningsby  and  MissMillbank,  of  course, 
fall  in  love  with  each  other,  the  result  being  that  Mill- 
bank  forbids  him  his  house  and  his  grandfather  disin- 
herits him.  The  Marquis  had  married  the  Princess 
Lucretia,  who  conspired  with  Rigby  to  do  Coningsby 
this  injury  by  representing  his  connection  with  the  Mill- 
banks  in  the  worst  possible  light :  Coningsby  having 
previously  offended  the  Marquis  by  refusing  to  stand 
for  Darlford  against  Edith's  father.  But  they  do  not  gain 
much  by  their  manoeuvres.  When  the  Marquis's  will  is 
opened,  it  is  found  that  he  has  left  the  bulk  of  his  im- 
mense property  to  Flora,  who  turns  out  to  be  his  natural 
daughter.  Now  Flora  had  been  secretly  in  love  with 
Coningsby  ever  since  they  met  at  the  Castle,  and,  when 
she  dies  of  consumption,  leaves  her  whole  immense  pro- 
perty to  the  hero,  who,  however,  has  been  reconciled  to 
the  Millbanks  and  engaged  to  Edith  before  the  turn  in 
his  fortunes. 

This  plot  has  always  seemed  to  me  a  very  good  one, 
better  than  that  oi  Sybil,  because  the  events  are  brought 
about  more  naturally  and  without  any  touch  of  melo- 
drama, of  which  Sybilf  exquisite  as  the  story  is,  presents 
here  and  there  a  slight  suspicion.  In  Sybil,  however, 
the  plot  is  sufficiently  ingenious,  while  the  story  and  the 
character  make  it  even  more  interesting  than  Coningsby, 
Sybil  herself  is  one  of  the  most  exquisite  creations 
which  the  hand  of  fiction  ever  drew.  But  the  descrip- 
tion of  factory  life  and  the  cruelty  and  extortion  to 
which  the  working  classes  were  exposed  at  the  hands 
of    their   employers,    scenes    described   from   personal 

13 


194  LIFE  OF  LOBB  BFACONSFIFLD. 

observation,  are  the  most  striking  portion  of  the  book, 
as  well  as  the  most  humorous  and  graphic. 

But  apart  from  the  story,  we  have  both  in  Conwg^hy 
and  Byhil  a  collection  of  political  and  social  sketches, 
to  which  we  doubt  if  English  literature  contains  any- 
thing that  is  superior:  Rigby  himself;  Mr.  Ormsby,  tlie 
man  of  society  who  has  *'  forty  thousand  a  year  paid 
quarterly,"  and  whose  world  is  bounded  by  Muyfair, 
St.  James's,  and  Pall  Mall ;  Tadpole  and  Taper,  the  two 
political  underlings;  Lord  Marney,  the  thoroughly 
selfish,  able  man,  who  believes  he  can  go  through 
life  on  the  principles  of  Helvetius — are  beyond  all 
praise  as  types  of  the  class  they  are  intended  to  repre- 
sent, with  its  mingled  cynicism  and  good  nature,  its 
common  sense,  its  addiction  to  gossip,  and  its  perfect 
satisfaction  with  the  little  world  in  whicli  it  lives,  out- 
side of  which  it  knows  nothing.  Of  all  these,  perhaps 
liord  Marney  is  the  most  original.  I  can  think  of 
nothing  like  him  in  any  other  English  novel ;  and  yet 
we  have  all  met  such  men,  men  in  whom  selfishness  is  so 
complete  and  so  candid  as  almost  to  excite  our  admira- 
tion, and  in  whom  the  love  of  contradiction  amounts  to 
monomania.  *'  The  great  difficulty  with  Lord  Marney," 
says  the  author,  "  was  to  find  a  sufficient  stock  of 
opposition ;  but  he  lay  in  wait,  and  seized  every  oppor- 
tunity with  wonderful  alacrity.  Even  Captain  Grouse 
could  not  escape  him ;  if  driven  to  extremity,  he  would 
even  question  his  principles  on  fly-making."  On  these 
two  characters  Mr.  Ormsby  and  Lord  Marney,  Mr. 
Disraeli  may  stake  his  reputation.  Tadpole  and  Taper 
have,  of  course,  become  household  words ;  but  they  are 
interesting  chiefly  for  the  political  satire  of  which  they 
are  the  vehicles.  They  are  not  finished  off  with  the 
delicacy  of  Mr.   Ormsby    and   Lord   Marney,   who  are 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  195 

interesting  exclusively  as  specimens  of  human  nature 
quite  irrespective  of  politics. 

The  dialogue  in  which  these  various  characters  are 
revealed  to  the  reader  is  equally  good.  Mr.  Ormshy's 
remarks  on  Lord  Monmouth's  separation  from  his  wife, 
and  Lord  Marney's  conversation  with  the  clergyman,  Mr. 
St.  Lys,  in  St/bil,  may  be  taken  at  random  as  examples 
of  the  author's  art  in  making  his  characters  speak  for 
themselves.  We  might  mention  beside  a  host  of  minor 
personages  redolent  of  that  humour  which  Mr.  Disraeli 
has  borrowed  from  nobody.  Mr.  Cassilis,  the  elderly 
dandy,  who,  upon  hearing  of  Young  England,  and  under- 
standing that  *'it  requires  a  doosed  deal  of  history  and 
all  that  sort  of  thing,"  gravely  observes  that  "  one  must 
brush  up  one's  Goldsmith,"  Devilsdust,  Stephen  Morley, 
Baptist  Hatton,  Lady  St.  Julian,  Lady  Deloraine,  Lady 
Firebrace,  and  last,  not  least,  that  finished  portrait, 
Lord  Eskdale,  form  a  gallery  which  would  alone  have 
made  the  painter  famous  had  he  no  other  title  to  dis- 
tinction. 

Of  Tancred  the  great  merit  lies  in  the  description  of 
Syria,  and  of  life  in  the  mountain  and  the  desert,  in 
which  it  abounds.  Tancred  is  a  high-born  youth  dis- 
satisfied with  modern  society,  yearning  for  the  restora- 
tion of  faith,  and  resolving  to  visit  the  land  in  which 
the  Creator  had  conversed  with  man  as  being  the  only 
spot  in  which  it  is  at  all  likely  that  illumination  or 
inspiration  will  be  vouchsafed  to  him.  The  story  of  his 
adventures  is  told  with  wonderful  spirit  and  beauty.  But 
the  vision  of  Tancred  on  Mount  Sinai  is  the  application 
of  fiction  to  purposes  for  which  it  never  was  intended, 
and  even  of  those  who  have  no  religious  feelings  to  be 
wounded  by  it,  the  taste  is  likely  to  be  shocked. 

Between  the  publication  of  Jaticred  in   1847,  and 

13  * 


196  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEACONSFIFLD, 

the  publication  of  Lothalr,  a  much  longer  interval 
occurred.  Lotliair  was  not  written  till  the  author  was 
sixty-five,  and  had  already  been  Prime  Minister.  But 
it  shows  no  falling  ofi*  in  his  humour  and  powers  of 
description.  Lothair,  like  the  young  duke,  is  a  noble 
millionaire  succeeding  to  an  immense  fortune  after  a 
long  minority,  but  whose  character  and  career  are  very 
different.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  the  Revo- 
lutionary Societies  run  a  race  against  each  other  for 
his  money,  which  is  won  by  the  latter,  chiefly  through 
the  influence  of  an  American  lady  who  is  the  inspiring 
spirit  of  the  Italian  patriots."^  His  adventures  with 
both  parties,  and  his  final  escape  to  England,  where  he 
recovers  his  senses,  saves  the  remainder  of  his  fortune, 
and  marries  the  Lady  Corisande,  need  not  be  narrated 
here.  Many  of  the  characters  in  the  story  are  in  the 
author's  best  manner.  Mr.  Phoebus  the  painter,  who 
"  has  always  been  of  opinion  that  reading  and  writing 
are  very  injurious  to  education  ";  Mr  Putney  Giles, 
the  wealthy  solicitor;  Lord  St.  Aldegonde,  who  de- 
clares in  the  presence  of  two  bishops  that  **  he  hates 
Sunday,"  are  inferior  only  to  the  characters  already 
singled  out  for  praise  in  Coningshy  and  Sybil, 

Eiidymion  was  published  in  1880,  and  in  this  the 
signs  of  advancing  age  are  visible.  It  is  an  exclusively 
political  story,  and  it  is  odd  that  his  first  and  his  last 
novel  should  in  some  respects  be  more  like  each 
other  than  those  which  came  between.  Endymion's 
father  reminds  one  of  Cleveland  ;  Endymion  is  very 
unlike  Vivian  Grey  in  point  of  character  and  judgment, 
and  he  does  not  rise  in  life  by  the  same  tactics  which 
caused  Vivian  Grey  to  fall;   but  there  is  the  same  air 

*  Since  the  above  was  written  it  has  been  stated  by  Mr.  Fronde 
that  the  "  General "  in  Lothair  was  meant  for  General  Cluserot. 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  197 

of  unreality  about  the  incidents  recorded,  and  the  fact 
that  more  than  one  leading  character  is  compounded  of 
several  originals,  without  much  care  being  taken  in  the 
blending  of  the  colours,  helps  still  further  to  confuse 
the  reader.  For  all  that,  however,  the  book  bears 
unmistakable  marks  of  its  author's  genius,  and  the 
account  of  "the  crisis'*  in  1834  and  the  bitter  disap- 
pointment of  Travers,  is  as  interesting  and  as  powerful 
as  anything  he  has  ever  written. 

It  has  been  said  that  a  common  thought  runs  through 
all  Lord  Beaconsfield's  novels  from  first  to  last ;  the 
struggles  of  some  youth  of  genius,  striving  to  emancipate 
himself  from  the  tryanny  of  custom,  whether  it  be  social 
or  political.  That  several  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  heroes 
are  in  some  degree  reflections  of  himself  may  be  admitted, 
and  it  follows,  therefore,  that  what  he  was  doing  in  life, 
they  seem  to  be  doing  also.  But  if  this  was  a  favourite 
idea  with  Mr.  Disraeli,  it  was  not  universally  embodied 
in  the  creations  of  his  fancy,  not  in  Alroj/y  not  in 
Henrietta  Temple^  not  in  Endi/mio?i,  It  is  an  idea 
very  likely  to  occur  to  any  young  man  of  great  intellec- 
tual power,  who  finds  his  station  in  life  not  equal  to 
his  ambition.  And  that  it  should  have  had  a  great 
fascination  for  Benjamin  Disraeli  is  only  what  we 
might  expect. 

The  three  prose  burlesques  deserve  to  be  better  known 
than  they  are.  The  Infernal  Marriaf/e  and  the  Voyage 
of  Pojjanilla  are  both  political  squibs,  descriptive  of  the 
state  of  parties  at  the  time  they  were  written.  In  the 
first,  Proserpine  is  taken  to  Elysium,  that  is,  goes  to 
Court,  and  becomes  a  great  lady  and  a  leader  of  society. 
The  Gods  and  the  Giants  are  the  Liberals  and  the  Tories 
during  the  ministry  of  Mr. Canning,  so  that  Mr.  Trolloj)e 
was  not  original  in  his  application  of  these  nanu  s  to  them. 


198  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAC0N8FIELB. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  is  then  Enceladus,  and  Sir 
Eohert  Peel,  Hyperion.  But  in  Pojmni/la,  when  he 
becomes  Prime  Minister,  he  is  Chiron  the  Centaur,  who 
can  use  his  heels  as  well  as  his  head.  Ixion  in 
Heaven  is  rather  social  than  political;  a  not  ill-natured 
satire  on  the  Court  and  society.  Jupiter  is  George  the 
Fourth,  with  "  an  immortal  waist.''  Apollo  is  Byron, 
calling  for  soda-water  and  biscuits,  which  they  do  not 
keep  in  Olympus,  and  finally  consoling  himself  with 
something  much  more  substantial.  It  is  very  amusing, 
the  dialogue  extremely  clever,  and  sixty  years  ago, 
when  many  of  the  minor  characters  and  more  obscure 
allusions,  would  have  been  appreciated,  should  have 
attained  some  celebrity.  By-the-by,  when  Ixion  is 
asked  to  write  something  in  Minerva's  Album,  he 
writes :  "  Adventures  are  to  the  adventurous,"  clearly 
proving  that  the  omniscient  Sidoniawas  acquainted  with 
ihiBJeu  (T esprit.  Popanilla  is  a  professed  imitation  of 
Gulliver's  Travels,  but  is  very  fresh,  sparkling,  and 
original,  for  all  that. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  is  the  author  of  certainly  two, 
and  possibly  three  works  in  verse,  the  Moder7i  Dxui- 
ciadf  of  which  enough  has  been  already  said;  the 
Revohiiioimry  Epic,  and  Count  Alarcos.  The  Revolu- 
tionary Epic  contains  some  really  fine  passages.  The 
plan  of  the  poem  is  simply  this :  Magros,  the 
genius  of  Feudalism,  creates  the  Teutonic  races,  and 
establishes  that  system  in  the  world,  and  about  one- 
third  of  the  poem  is  a  description  of  its  virtues.  Then 
arises  upon  earth  a  destructive  monster  called 
"  Change,"  whose  deeds  pave  the  way  for  Lyridon, 
the  genius  of  Federation,  who  in  his  turn  sings  the 
praises  of  liberty,  fraternity,  and  equality.  The  con- 
cluding portion  of  the  piece  is  the  conquest  of  Italy  by 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  199 

Napoleon.  Productions  much  inferior  to  the  Revo- 
lutionary  Epic  have  caused  their  authors  to  be  enrolled 
among  English  poets.  But  only  the  very  best  can 
bear  the  blaze  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  fame,  and  any- 
thing less  than  that  seems  so  totally  unworthy  of  it 
as  to  be  consigned  to  a  lower  place  in  literature  than 
perhaps,  on  its  merits,  it  deserves. 

The  tragedy  of  Alarcos  is  founded  on  the  Spanish 
ballad  of  the  same  name,  said  by  Ticknor  to  be  "  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  and  touching  in  any  language."  It 
has  been  translated  by  Lockhart,  and  no  less  than  four 
Spanish  plays  have  been  founded  on  it ;  but  as  I  have 
not  read  them  I  cannot  say  how  far,  if  at  all,  Lord 
Beaconsfield  was  indebted  to  them.  His  own  Play  is 
well  written  and  contains  some  characteristic  lines  : — 

Aye — ever  pert  is  youth  that  baffles  age. 

And  these  still  more  so — 

The  Countess. 

Hast  thou  still  foes  ? 

The  Count. 

I  trust  so :  I  should  not  be  what  I  am, 
Still  less  what  I  will  be,  if  hate  did  not 
Pursue  me,  as  my  shadow. 

Of  the  four  political  compositions  which  I  have  already 
enumerated  the  first  in  order  of  time  is  a  short  piece 
entitled  What,  is  He  '}  written  in  1833,  shortly  after  his 
first  contest  at  High  Wycombe,  ia  order  to  explain 
what  Tory  Radicalism  meant.  In  it  he  says  that 
as  neither  the  Whigs'^  nor  the  Tories  can  carry  on  the 
Government  with  the  new  machinery,  a  new  party  is 
required.    That  must  be  either  aristocratic  or  democratic. 

*  See  Letters  of  Peel  in  Croker  Papers. 


200  LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEACONSFIELD. 

Aristocratic,  however,  it  cannot  be,  for  the  aristocratic 
principle  perished  out  of  the  Constitution  when  the  Lords 
gave  way  on  the  Keform  Bill.  It  could  not  be  restored 
by  force  :  nor  yet  for  more  than  a  very  brief  period  by  a 
coalition  between  the  Whigs  and  Tories,  and  it  therefore 
becomes  the  duty  of  the  Tory  party  to  coalesce  with 
Radicals.  He  says  here  what  he  repeats  in  Conififfshijy 
that  "  it  was  not  the  Reform  Bill  itself  which  has  shaken 
the  aristocracy  of  the  country,  but  the  means  by  which 
it  was  carried."  The  Crisis  Examined  is  the  substance 
of  a  speech  delivered  by  him  at  High  Wycombe,  Decem- 
ber 16th,  1834,  and  is  to  be  found  at  page  8.  In 
this  we  find  that  the  views  expressed  in  the  previous 
pamphlet  had  already  undergone  some  modification.  In 
What  is  He  ?  he  told  us  that  the  Whigs  have  succeeded 
in  overpowering  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  aristo- 
ratic  principle  is  destroyed.  He  now  speaks  of  what 
might  have  happened  if  they  had  done  so.  The  rally 
of  the  Tory  party  under  Peel  and  Wellington  seems  to 
have  shaken  his  convictions  and  led  him  to  suspect 
that  his  prophecies  had  been  premature. 

It  was  in  the  following  year,  1835,  after  the  resigna- 
tion of  Sir  Robert  PeeFs  short-lived  but  able  adminis- 
tration, that  Mr.  Disraeli  published  his  Vindication 
of  the  English  Co7istituiion,  wherein  are  laid  down 
in  a  more  formal  manner  the  majority  of  those  poli- 
tical precepts,  which  were  afterwards  reproduced  in  a 
more  popular  shape  in  the  dialogues  between  Coningsby 
and  Sidonia.  The  rise  and  progress  of  the  English 
Parliament,  the  nature  of  the  Plantagenet  Monarchy, 
its  alteration  by  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts,  and  its 
attempted  revival  by  the  aristocracy  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  First;  the  origin  of  the  '*  Venetian " 
Constitution,   the   refusal  of  William  to  submit  to  it, 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  201 

and  the  struggles  of  the  Georges  to  escape  from  it; 
the  democratic  or  popular  Toryism  which  was  always 
opposed  to  the  oligarchy,  and  which  enabled  George 
the  Third  to  bridle  it;  the  distortion  of  English  history 
which  the  Whigs  have  so  sedulously  fostered,  and 
which  the  Tories  have  been  too  indolent  to  combat ; 
all  these,  with  many  auxihary  speculations  which  did 
not  so  readily  fall  in  with  the  plan  of  a  novel,  are  to 
be  found  in  the  Vin(/icatio?if  drawn  out  with  great  clear- 
ness and  ingenuity,  and  expressed  in  language  at  once 
vigorous,  precise,  and  elegant,  qualities  for  which  Mr. 
Disraeli's  English  prose  is  not  invariably  conspicuous. 
It  is  needless  to  defend  its  accuracy  at  every  point, 
and  against  all  comers.  The  question  is  whether  this 
epitome  of  our  Constitutional  history  is  true  in  the  spirit. 
It  is  remarkable,  indeed,  that  we  do  not  find  in 
Coni7igshij  the  same  construction  placed  on  the  resist- 
ance to  Charles  the  First  which  we  find  in  the  Vindi- 
cation, In  the  latter  the  author's  sympathies  are  with 
the  Parliament,  in  the  former  they  are  with  the  King. 
But  the  discrepancy,  perhaps,  is  more  apparent  than 
real.  For  of  the  entire  struggle  which  Insted  from 
1627  to  1714,  though  Lord  Beaconsfield  may  have 
varied  in  his  opinion  of  it  at  particular  stages,  the 
ultimate  result  is  condemned  alike  both  by  the  essay 
and  the  novel.  The  following  extract  from  the  Spirit 
of  Wliifjgism  shows,  perhaps,  the  real  harmony  which 
underlay  this  seeming  inconsistency  : — 

When  Charles  the  First,  after  a  series  of  great  concessions,  which 
ultimately  obtained  for  him  the  support  of  the  most  illustrious  of  his 
early  opponents,  raised  the  royal  standard,  the  constitution  of  the 
Plantagenets,  and  more  than  the  constitution  of  the  Plantagenets, 
had  been  restored  and  secured.  But  a  portion  of  the  able  party 
which  had  succeeded  in  effecting  such  a  vast  and  beneficial 
revolution  was  not  content  to   part   with  the  extraordinary  powers 


202         LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEAC0N8FIFLD. 

vrhich  they  had  obtained  in  this  memorable  struggle.  This  section  of 
the  aristocracy  were  the  origin  of  the  English  Whigs,  though  that  title 
was  not  invented  until  the  next  reign. 

That  is  to  say,  one  section  of  the  Parliamentary 
party,  seeing  more  power  within  their  reach  than  they 
had  originally  aimed  at,  resolved  to  make  a  spring  at  it, 
and  their  descendants,  in  1714,  pretty  nearly  succeeded 
in  securing  it. 

The  Letters  of  Eimnymede,  published  also  in  1836, 
are  nineteen  in  number,  and  are  dedicated  to  Sir  Kobert 
Peel.  They  appeared  at  intervals  between  the  18th  of 
January  and  the  15th  of  May,  and  were  addressed 
chiefly  to  the  leading  members  of  the  Government. 
One,  however,  was  addressed  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  one  to 
Lord  Stanley,  one  to  **  the  People,"  and  two  to  the 
Plouse  of  Lords.  They  all  relate  to  the  politics  of  the 
day,  and  though  witty  and  occasionally  wise,  are  less 
able  and  less  dignified  than  the  Vindication  of  the 
British  Comtitution,  The  invective  and  the  satire 
are  too  laboured;  and,  though  part  of  what  seems 
far-fetched  to  ourselves  probably  did  not  seem  so  to 
contemporaries  well  acquainted  with  every  incident 
referred  to,  they  cannot  be  considered  on  the  whole 
a  favourable  specimen  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  literary 
powers. 

Lord  George  Bentinch :  a  Political  Biogfaplty^  was 
published  in  1852,  and  of  all  his  works,  not  being 
works  of  imagination,  it  is  the  one  most  likely  to  be 
known  and  admired  by  posterity.  I  say  nothing  of 
the  economical  opinions  expressed  in  it,  though  the 
wheel  of  time  and  the  course  of  events  may  again 
bring  them  into  fashion.  But  that  wonderful  study  of 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  which  the  greatest  masters  of  lite- 
rary portraiture  have  never   surpassed,    those   glowing 


A8  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  203 

and  graphic  scenes  of  Parliamentary  warfare,  where 
every  combatant  stands  out  in  bold  relief,  and  every 
change  of  fortune  is  as  visible  as  to  spectators  in  the 
gallery,  will  surely  live  for  ever,  or  as  long  as  men  con- 
tinue to  take  an  interest  in  the  history  of  senates 
and  the  romance  of  politics.  We  have  also  in  the  same 
work  two  most  interesting  dissertations,  one  on  the 
growth  of  English  Parties  since  the  end  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary war;  the  other  on  his  own  people  and  his 
father's  house,  in  which  he  gives  in  a  more  connected 
form  the  same  account  of  the  Jewish  race  as  first  sur- 
prised the  world  in  Coning  shy. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  Lord  Beaconsfield's  prose 
style  is  conspicuous  for  elegance  or  purity.  Exceptions 
may  be  named,  no  doubt.  I  think  the  letter  to  the  TimeSy 
quoted  at  page  14,  is  one  such.  The  Vindication  is 
another.  But  he  is  not,  as  a  general  rule,  sufficiently 
careful  to  confine  words  in  their  proper  signification ;  his 
constructions  are  often  harsh,  and  he  does  not  always 
display  the  art  or  skill  we  might  have  expected  from 
him  in  the  disposition  of  his  sentences.  That  the  writer 
whose  natural  bent  is  towards  warmth,  brilliancy,  and 
richness,  should  sometimes  be  guilty  of  the  excess  to 
which  these  qualities  are  prone,  and  become  florid  or 
fantastic,  is  by  no  means  wonderful ;  and  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  taste  for  all  that  is  bright,  glowing,  and  gor- 
geous, both  in  nature  and  art,  was  well  known.  He 
used  to  say  that  he  never  wondered  at  the  sun-wor- 
shippers. But  I  think  that,  for  splendour  of  style, 
unblemished  by  a  word  that  is  either  tawdry  or  meretri- 
cious, the  description  of  Jerusalem  in  Tancredy  and  of 
the  Queen's  first  Council  in  Si/bil,  may  be  mentioned 
with  some  confidence  that  the  critical  judgment  of  pos- 
terity will  not  disallow  their  claims. 


204         LIFE  OF  LOBD  BEACONSFIELD. 

The  council  of  England  is  summoned  for  the  first  time  within  her 
bowers.  There  are  assembled  the  prelates  and  captains  and  chief 
men  of  her  realm ;  the  priests  of  the  religion  that  consoled,  the  heroes 
of  the  sword  that  has  conquered,  the  votaries  of  the  craft  that  has 
decided  the  fate  of  empires ;  men  grey  with  thought,  and  fame,  and 
age,  who  are  the  stewards  of  divine  mysteries,  who  have  toiled  in 
secret  cabinets,  who  have  encountered  in  battle  the  hosts  of  Europe, 
who  have  struggled  in  the  less  merciful  strife  of  aspiring  senates  ; 
men  too,  some  of  them,  lords  of  a  thousand  vassals  and  chief  proprie- 
tors of  provinces,  yet  not  one  of  them  whose  heart  does  not  at  this 
moment  tremble  as  he  awaits  the  first  presence  of  the  maiden  who 
must  now  ascend  her  throne. 

A  hum  of  half-suppressed  conversation  which  would  attempt  to 
conceal  the  excitement,  which  some  of  the  greatest  of  them  have  since 
acknowledged,  fills  that  brilliant  assemblage ;  that  sea  of  plumes,  and 
glittering  stars,  and  gorgeous  dresses.  Hush!  the  portals  open;  she 
comes ;  the  silence  is  as  deep  as  that  of  a  noontide  forest.  Attended 
for  a  moment  by  her  royal  mother  and  the  ladies  of  her  court,  who 
bow  and  then  retire,  Victoria  ascends  her  throne;  a  girl,  alone,  and 
for  the  first  time,  amid  an  assemblage  of  men. 

In  a  sweet  and  thrilling  voice,  and  with  a  composed  mien,  which 
indicates  rather  the  absorbing  fense  of  august  duty  than  an  absence 
of  emotion,  The  Queen  announces  her  accession  to  the  throne  of  her 
ancestors,  and  her  humble  hope  that  divine  Providence  will  guard 
over  the  fulfilment  of  her  lofty  trust. 

The  prelates  and  captains  and  chief  men  of  her  realm  then  advance 
to  the  throne,  and  kneeling  before  her,  pledge  their  troth,  and  take 
the  sacred  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremac3^ 

Allegiance  to  one  who  rules  over  the  land  that  the  great  Macedonian 
could  not  conquer ;  and  over  a  continent  of  which  even  Columbus 
never  dreamed :  to  the  Queen  of  every  sea,  and  of  nations  in  every 
zone. 

It  is  not  of  these  that  I  would  speak ;  but  of  a  nation  nearer  her 
footstool,  and  which  at  this  moment  looks  to  her  with  anxiety,  with 
affection,  perhaps  with  hope.  Fair  and  serene,  she  has  tlie  blood  and 
beauty  of  the  Saxon.  Will  it  be  her  provid  destiny  at  length  to  bear 
relief  to  suffering  millions,  and,  with  that  soft  hand  which  might 
inspire  troubadours  and  guerdon  knights,  break  the  last  Unk  in  the 
chain  of  Saxon  thraldom  ? 

The  materials  for  the  picture  were  supplied  to  the 
artist  by  Lord  Lyndhurst,  who  took  Mr.  Disraeli  with 
him  in  his  carriage    to  Kensington  Gardens,   and  on 


AS  A  MAN  OF  LETTERS.  205 

their  return  journey  gave  him  a  full  account  of  the  im- 
pressive scene  which  he  had  witnessed. 

For  the  passage  in  Tancred,  I  must  refer  my  readers 
to  the  work  itself.  But,  before  quitting  the  subject, 
I  shall  give  one  specimen  of  his  more  highly-decorative 
style,  which  has  been  supposed  to  violate  the  laws  of 
taste,  but  which,  though  it  belongs  to  the  arabesque, 
can  scarcely  be  called  vicious  : — 

The  summer  twilight  had  faded  into  sweet  night ;  the  young  and 
star-attended  moon  glittered  like  a  sickle  in  the  deep  purple  sky  ;  of 
all  the  luminous  host  Hesperus  alone  was  visible  ;  and  a  breeze,  that 
bore  the  last  embrace  of  the  flowers  by  the  sun,  moved  languidly  and 
fitfully  over  the  still  and  odorous  earth. 

The  moonbeam  fell  upon  the  roof  and  garden  of  Gerard.  It  suf- 
fused the  cottage  with  its  brilliant  light,  except  where  the  dark  depth 
of  the  embowered  porch  defied  its  entry.  All  around  the  beds  of 
flowers  and  herbs  spread  sparkling  and  defined.  You  could  trace  the 
mi.iutest  walk  ;  almost  distinguish  every  leaf.  Now  and  then  there 
came  a  breath,  and  the  sweet  peas  murmured  in  their  sleep  ;  or  the 
roses  rustled,  as  if  they  were  afraid  they  were  about  to  h  e  roused 
from  their  lightsome  dreams.  Farther  on  the  fruit  trees  caught  the 
splendour  of  the  night ;  and  looked  like  a  troop  of  sultanas  taking 
their  gai-den  air,  when  the  eye  of  man  could  nat  profane  them,  and 
laden  with  jewels.  There  were  apples  that  rivalled  rubies  ;  pears  of 
topaz  tint ;  a  whole  paraphernalia  of  plums,  some  purple  as  the  ame- 
thyst, others  blue  and  brilliant  as  the  sapphire ;  an  emerald  here,  and 
now  a  golden  drop  that  gleamed  like  the  yellow  diamond  of  Gengis 
Khan. 

It  is,  however,  in  his  colloquial  style,  that  I  think  he 
shows  to  most  advantage.  As  with  his  speeches,  so 
with  his  novels,  his  humour  is  superior  to  his  eloquence  ; 
and  of  the  language  of  society,  the  language  of  clubs, 
lobbies,  and  drawing-rooms,  he  was  a  perfect  master. 


206         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CONCLUSION. 

His  Public  and  Private  Character — Not  an  Adventurer — ^Devotion 
to  Politics — Love  of  Nature,  and  of  Animals,  and  of  Children — ■ 
Stories  of  his  early  Eccentricities — Life  at  Hughenden — Popu- 
larity in  the  Neighbourhood — His  Seholarship — His  Library — 
Lady  John  Manners's  Reminiscences. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  has  been  called  a  "  political  adven- 
turer/' and  if,  to  be  a  political  adventurer,  is  to  enter 
public  life  without  patrimony  or  connections,  and  to 
rise  only  by  the  force  of  merit,  he  may  have  deserved 
-Ih'fe'name.  But,  at  that  rate,  many  eminent  men  whose 
memory  is  still  cherished  must  answer  to  the  charge  as 
well.  Burke,  Canning,  Cobbett,  must  all  be  styled 
political  adventurers.  While,  if  we  glance  at  the  ranks 
of  living  statesmen,  we  shall  see  one  among  them 
who,  while  answering  to  this  description  more  closely 
than  any  we  have  named,  is  yet  conspicuous  for  honesty, 
frankness,  and  singleness  of  purpose  above  his  fellows: 
need  I  name  Mr.  John  Morley.  Surely  a  political 
adventurer,  like  a  military  adventurer,  is  one  who  makes 
his  principles  subservient  to  his  interests,  and  transfers 
his  allegiance  from  side  to  side  as  advantage  or  con- 
venience dictates,  indiflPerent  to  the  cause  which  he  is 


CONCLUSION.  207 

required  to  defend,  and  concerned  only  with  the  fulfil- 
ment of  his  duties  and  the  receipt  of  his  stipulated  fee. 
English  history  is  no  stranger  to  such  men,  though  they 
have  usually  played  a  secoiraary  part.     But  there  is  no 
definition  of  the  term  "adventurer"  which  will  embrace 
at  once  LordBeaconsfield  and  such  men  as  these.   Lord^ 
Beaconsfield  never  changed  either  his  principles  or  hia.( 
party.     He  was   a  Tory  of  the  type  which  I  have  de- 
scribed, from   the  first   addres*which  he  issued   to  the 
electors  of  High  Wycombe  to  the  last  speech  which  he 
delivered  in  th"e~TTouse  of  Lords  half  a  century  after- 
wards.    Insulted,    distrusted,   and  calumniated  by   the 
very  men  who  should  have  been   the  first  to  welcome  ' 
him,  he  never  swerved  for  a  momei^in  his   attachment 
to   the   cause   which  he   and  they  Tad    at   heart.     He 
served  the  Tory  party  as  no  man  except   the  younger 
Pitt  had  ever  served  it.     He   served  it  through  poverty, 
adversity,   and   unpopularity,  without  e^r  losing  heart 
or  hope,  or  allowing  his  own  private  circumstances  to 
afiect  his  political  conduct. 

And  he  had  his  reward  at  last.  In  the  life  of  Lord 
George  Bentinck  there  is  a  passage*  which  I  have 
always  thought  a  very  interesting  one,  as  it  applied 
prophetically  to  himself:  **  An  aristocracj^^itates 
before  it  yields  its  confidence,  but  neveSKes  so 
grudgingly."  In  his  own  case  it  hesitated  long,  and 
with  additional  circumstances  not  wholly  creditable  to 
itself  But  it  ended  by  trusting  him  completely,  Lord 
Derby  set  a  noble  example.  He,  too,  had  hesitated. 
But  if  asked  at  any  later  period  why  nobody  trusted 
Mr.  Disraeli,  he  would  indignantly  declare  that  it 
was  false,  adding,  proudly,  "  /  trust  him."  The  Eng- 
lish aristocracy  seeing  this,  laid  aside   their  prejudices 

♦  Already  quoted  at  p  85. 


208  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAOONSFIELD. 

by  degrees.  His  character  became  belter  understood. 
A  younger  generation  grew  up  familiar  with  his  writings, 
and  with  those  views  of  the  English  Constitution  and 
English  Parties,  which  reconciled  so  many  of  the  seem- 
ing contradictions  of  his  life :  and  long  before  he 
became  Prime  Minister  with  real  power,  his  political 
integrity  and  his  party  loyalty  were  as  fully  and  as 
freely  recognized  as  that  of  any  living  statesman. 

Of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  private  life  there  is  compara- 
tively little  to  tell,  and  of  that  little  so  much  has  been 
already  told,  that  I  cannot  hope  to  impart  any  fresh- 
ness or  novelty  to  these  concluding  pages.  Lord 
Beaconsfield  lives  in  Hansard.  It  is  there  that  we 
must  look  for  his  portrait ;  and  it  is  evident  that, 
with  all  his  fondness  for  rural  "pleasures,  he  carried  his 
political  interests  with  him  wherever  he  went.  This 
is  strikingly  illustrated  by  an  anecdote  to  be  found 
in  Lord  Malmesbury's  Diary,  which  must  be  well 
known  to  most  of  my  readers.  When  the  late  Lord 
Derby  was  staying  at  Heron  Court,  and  absorbed  in 
the  delights  of  wild-fowl  shooting,  his  countenance 
was  observed  to  fall  when  he  heard  that  Disraeli 
was  expected,  and  he  exclaimed  in  a  tone  of  annoy- 
ance, "  Ah  !  now  we  shall  be  obliged  to  talk  politics." 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  indeed,  was  unaffectedly  fond  of 
the  country,  and  birds,  trees,  and  flowers  retained 
their  charm  for  him  to  the  last.  He  was  sincerely 
grieved  when  a  wintry  gale  blew  down  a  favourite  ash  ; 
and  once,  when  a  half-witted  peasant  who  was  allowed 
to  wander  about  the  park  showed  him  a  dead  bird  which 
he  had  picked  up,  he  said,  **  Take  it  away,  I  cannot 
bear  the  sight  of  it."  He  was  not  without  domestic 
pets  either,  for  he  had  a  dog  to  which  he  was  warmly  at- 
tached; and  one  can  fancy  him  well  with  a  grave  Persian 


CONCLUSION,  209 

cat,  such  as  he  describes  in  Baptist  Hatton*s  chambers, 
sitting  at  his  elbow  or  climbing  on  to  his  shoulders.  His 
peacocks,  which  were  a  present  from  Sir  Philip  Rose, 
were  after  his  death  taken  charge  of  by  the  Queen. 
But  for  all  that  his  heart  was  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ;  and  I  suspect  that  his  love  of  the  country  was 
rather  love  of  her  external  beauty  than  the  deeper 
sympathy  of  Wordsworth  or  Scott,  who  found  the 
charm  which  enthralled  them  rather  in  the  heart  than 
in  the  face  of  nature. 

He  was  a  very  good-natured  and  a  very  kind- 
hearted  man,  fond  of  children,  and  always  ready  to 
assist  struggling  merit.  He  was  proud  of  his  connec- 
tion with  literature,  and  was  a  good  friend  to  many 
working  brothers  of  the  Press.  In  his  own  neigh- 
bourhood he  was  extremely  popular  with  the  peasantry 
and  the  farmers.  He  was  most  anxious  to  make  the 
cottagers  ou  his  small  estate  comfortable ;  and  was  quite 
able  to  enjoy  a  chat  with  the  mothers  and  grandmothers 
of  the  hamlet  over  their  afternoon  tea.  He  contrived, 
when  at  Hughenden,  to  get  all  his  official  business  com- 
pleted by  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  so  as  to  leave 
himself  time  for  his  walk  or  drive  before  dinner.  He  was 
never  tired  of  the  Chiltern  Hills,  or  of  talking  of  the  in- 
teresting historical  events  of  which  they  were  the  cradle. 

Of  his  life  in  London  in  his  younger  days  we  might 
construct  a  picture  to  ourselves  out  of  his  letters  to  his 
sister.  But  of  his  personal  appearance,  his  coats  and  his 
trousers,  his  cuffs  and  his  cravats,  liis  ringlets  and  his 
jewellery,  the  world,  I  think,  hns  heard  enough.  It  would 
not  differ  materially  from  the  life  of  any  other  young 
man  about  town  when  the  present  century  was  young. 
Quite  recently  an  addition  has  been  made  to  the  his- 
tory of  his  social  peculiarities  by  the  Duke   of  Coburg 

14 


210  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

who  says  that  he  used  to  go  out  to  dinner  with  his  arm 
in  a  sling,  though  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with 
him,  to  make  himself  look  interesting.  The  story  we 
think,  may  be  consigned  to  the  same  limbo  as  the  story  of 
the  black  satin  shirt  and  the  green  velvet  trousers.  We 
are  all  more  interested  in  knowing  how  he  lived  and 
talked  and  amused  himself  during  the  last  thirty  years 
of  his  life,  when  he  was  before  the  public  and  a  leading 
actor  on  the  stage. 

But  of  such  information  there  is  but  little  to  be 
had.  He  was  no  sportsman  ;  he  was  no  farmer.  He 
was  neither  the  head  of  a  family,  nor  the  lord  of  a  large 
estate,  interested  in  the  fortunes  of  sons  and  daughters, 
or  busied  with  large  schemes  of  local  improvement.  He 
was  no  leader  of  religious  or  philanthropical  societies  ; 
he  seems  to  have  cared  little  for  travelling,  and  of  mere 
social  excitement  he  had  probably  drunk  his  fill  in  early 
youth.  He  was  a  good  classical  scholar,  his  favourite 
ancient  authors  being  Sophocles  and  Horace,  but  in  his 
intervals  of  leisure  he  seems  to  have  found  employment 
rather  in  composition  than  in  study.  I  should  think  it 
is  doubtful  whether  he  even  read  much  contemporary 
literature. 

It  was  a  pleasure  to  see  him  in  his  library,  and  to 
hear  him  discourse  of  books.  If  circumstance  had  at 
any  time  diverted  his  attention  from  politics,  he  wouldy 
probably  have  drunk  deep  of  **  those  pellucid  streams  *' 
to  which  he  referred  with  unaffected  enthusiasm  in  a 
speech  at  the  Literary  Fund  banquet,"^  and  have 
rivalled  as  an  author  the  fame  which  awaited  him  as  a 
statesman.  But  his  choice  was  made  in  youth,  and  ho 
never  for  one  single  instant  appears  to  have  regretted  it, 

*  1868. 


CONGLUSION,  211 

At  Hughenden  Lady  Beaconsfield  during  her  lifetime 
was  the  brightest  of  hostesses  ;  and  to  walk  with  her 
in  the  surrounding  woods,  and  hear  her  discourse  about 
her  husband — it  is  needless  to  say,  her  favourite  topic — 
was  a  treat  not  soon  to  be  forgotten.  She  was  particu- 
larly fond  of  telling  how,  after  a  capital  division  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  1867,  he  refused  an  invitation  to 
supper  at  the  Carlton,  that  he  might  carry  the  good  news 
to  Grosvenor  Gate  without  delay.  **  Dizzy  came  home 
to  me,"  she  used  to  say,  with  a  triumphant  air. 

His  domestic  life,  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose, 
was  one  of  unclouded  happiness,  and,  due  in  great  part 
to  Lady  Beacon sfield's  exertions,  of  general  cheerful- 
ness. His  wife  was  devoted  to  him,  and  he  returned  her 
affection  with  sincerity.  This  aspect  of  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  life  was  touched  upon  in  feeling  tones  by  Mr. 
Gladstone  in  the  speech  from  which  I  have  already 
quoted : — 

There  was  also  another  feeling,  Sir,  lying  nearer  to  the  very  centre 
of  his  existence,  which,  though  a  domestic  feeling,  may  now  be  re- 
ferred to  without  indelicacy.  I  mean  his  profound,  devoted,  tender, 
and  grateful  affection  for  his  wife  which,  if,  as  may  be  the  case,  it 
deprived  him  of  the  honour  of  public  obsequies,  has  nevertheless  left 
for  him  a  more  permanent  title  as  one  who  knew,  amid  the  calls  and 
temptations  of  political  life,  what  was  due  to  the  sanctity  and  strength 
of  the  domestic  affections,  and  made  him  in  that  respect  an  example 
to  the  country  in  which  he  lived. 

Lady  John  Manners  has  given  us  an  interesting  ac- 
count of  his  private  life  after  the  death  of  Lady  Bea- 
consfield, interesting,  however,  not  so  much  from  what 
she  tells,  as  fri)m  the  character  which  they  serve  to 
illustrate.  He  had  long  ceased  to  care  for  society  on  a 
large  scale,  even  if  he  ever  did,  but  enjoyed  very  much 
the  company  of  a  few  chosen   friends,  "  not^  more  than 


212  LIFE  OF  LOUD  BFACONSFIELB. 

the  Muses  nor  less  than  the  Graces,"  with  whom  he 
would  converse  freely  and  without  any  apparent  reserve, 
about  his  own  literary  and  political  career.  But  except 
on  such  occasions  he  was  rather  a  silent  host,  and  liked 
others  to  talk.  I  have  heard,  however,  that  he  was  no 
foe  to  merriment,  and,  like  his  own  Marquis  of  Mon- 
mouth, rather  liked  "  boisterous  gaiety,"  in  which  he 
was  not  called  upon  to  take  a  part. 

The  world  has  no  doubt  a  good  deal  more  to  learn  of 
Lord  Beaconsfield  behind  the  scenes.  Both  of  his 
public  and  his  private  life  the  recesses  have  still  to  be 
explored.  Of  his  early  political  trials  after  he  entered 
the  House  of  Commons  little  is  known  that  is 
authentic;  while  of  his  private  affairs,  and  the  pecuniary 
troubles  with  which  for  years  he  was  condemned  to 
struggle,  most  people  are  entirely  ignorant.  When  the 
whole  drama  of  his  life  shall  be  displayed  to  view ; 
when  his  relations  with  his  colleagues  and  his  oppo- 
nents, with  the  Crown  and  the  arisiocracy,  with  friends 
and  enemies,  shall  stand  fully  revealed  to  us;  when  all 
the  difficulties  and  all  the  jealousies  which  impeded  him 
on  the  threshold  of  his  career  shall  be  clearly  under- 
stood:  then,  indeed,  we  think  that  the  life  of  Benjamin 
Disraeli  will  be  recognis-ed  as  one  of  the  most  **  won- 
drous tales  ^'  which  sober  truth  has  ever  told. 


THE  END. 


APPENDIX. 


Franchise  Clauses  '^  to  1  of  Reform  Bill  of  1867,  as 
originally  introduced  to  the  House  of  Commons. 

3.  Every  Man  shall  be  entitled  to  be  registered  as  a 
Voter,  and,  when  registered,  to  vote  for  a  Member  or 
Members  to  serve  in  Parliament  for  a  Borough,  who  is 
qualified  as  follows  ;  that  is  to  say  : 

1.  Is  of  full  age,  and  not  subject  to  any  legal  Inca- 

pacity; and 

2.  Is  on  the  last  Day  of  July  in  any  Year  and  has 

during  the  whole  of  the  preceding  Two  Years  been 
an  Inhabitant  Occupier,  as  Owner  or  Tenant,  of 
any  Dwelling  House  within  the  Borough ;  and 

3.  Has  during  the  Time  of  such  Occupation  been  rated 

in  respect  of  the  Premises  so  occupied  by  him 
within  the  Borough  to  all  Rates  (if  any)  made  for 
the  Relief  of  the  Poor  in  respect  of  such  Pre- 
mises ;  and 

4.  Has  before  the  Twentieth  Bay  of  July  in  the  same 

Year  paid  all  Poor  Rates  that  have  become  pay- 
able by  him  in  respect  of  the  said  Premises  up  to 
the  preceding  Fifth  Bay  of  January. 
4.  Every  Man  shall  be  entitled  to  be  registered  as  a 
Voter,  and,  when  registered,  to  vote  for  a  Member  or 
Members  to  serve  in  Parliament  for  a  County,  who  is 
qualified  as  follows ;  that  is  to  say : 

1 .  Is  of  full  Age,  and  not  subject  to  any  legal  Inca- 

pacity ;  and 

2.  Is  on  the   last  Bay  of  July  in  any  Year  and  has 

during  the  Twelve  Months  immediately  preceding 
been  the  Occupier,  as  Owner  or  Tenant,  of  Pre- 


214  LIFE  OF  LORD  BEACONSFIELD. 

mises  of  any  Tenure  within  the  County  of  the 
rateable  Value  of  Fifteen  Pounds  or  upwards  ; 
and 

3.  Has  during  the  Time  of  such  Occupation  been  rated 

in  respect  to  the  Premises  so  occupied  by  him  to 
all  Eates  (if  any)  made  for  the  Eelief  of  the  Poor 
in  respect  of  the  said  Premises  ;  and 

4.  Has  before  the  Twentieth  Bay  of  July  in  the  same 

Year  paid  all  Poor  Rates  that  have  become  pay- 
able by  him  in  respect  of  the  said  Premises  up  to 
the  preceding  Fifth  Day  of  January. 

5.  Every  Man  shall  be  entitled  to  be  registered,  and, 
when  registered,  to  vote  at  the  Election  of  a  Member 
or  Memi3ers  to  serve  in  Parliament  for  a  County  or 
Borough,  who  is  of  full  Age,  and  not  subject  to  any  "legal 
Incapacity,  and  is  on  the  last  Bay  of  July  in  any  Year 
and  has  during  the  Year  immediately  preceding  been 
resident  in  such  County  or  Borough,  and  is  possessed  of 
any  One  or  more  of  the  Qualifications  following  ;  that  is 
to  say : 

1.  Is,  and  has  been  during  the  Period  of  such  Resi- 

dence, a  Graduate  or  Associate  in  Arts  of  any 
University  of  the  United  Kingdom;  or  a  Male 
Person  who  has  passed  at  any  Senior  Middle  Class 
Examination  of  any  University  of  the  United 
Kingdom : 

2.  Is,  and  has  been  during  the  Period  aforesaid,  an 

ordained  Priest  or  Deacon  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land; or 

3.  Is,  and  has  been  during  the  Period  aforesaid,  a  Mini- 

ster of  any  other  Religious  Denomination  appointed 
either  alone  or  with  not  more  than  One  Colleague 
to  the  Charge  of  any  registered  Chapel  or  Place 
of  Worship,  and  is,  and  has  been  during  such 
Period,  officiating  as  the  Minister  thereof  ;  or 

4.  Is,    and   has  been  during   the   Period  aforesaid,  a 

Serjeant-at-Law  or  Barrister-at-Law  in  any  of  the 
Inns  of  Court  in  England,  or  a  Certificated 
Pleader  or  Certificated  Conveyancer ;  or 

6.  Is,  and  has  been  during  the  Period  aforesaid,  a  Cer- 

tificated Attorney  or  Solicitor  or  Proctor  in  Eng- 
land or  Wales  j  or 


APPENDIX.  216 

6.  Is,  and  has  been  during  the  Period  aforesaid,  a  duly 

qualified  Medical  Practitioner  registered  under  the 
Medical  Act,  1858  ;  or 

7.  Is,  and   has    been  during  the   Period  aforesaid,  a 

Schoolmaster  holding  a  Certificate  from  the  Com- 
mittee of  Her  Majesty's  Council  on  Education : 
Provided  that  no  Person  shall  be  entitled  to  be  registered 
as  a  Voter  or  to  vote  in  respect  of  any  of  the  Qualifica- 
tions mentioned  in  this  Section  in  more  than  one  Place. 

6.  Every  Man  shall  be  entitled  to  be  registered,  and, 
when  registered,  to  vote  at  the  Election  of  a  Member  or 
Members  to  serve  in  Parliament  for  a  County  or  Borough, 
who  is  of  full  A-ge,  and  not  subject  to  any  legal  Incapa- 
city, and  is  on  the  First  Bay  of  July  in  any  Year  and  has 
during  the  Two  Years  immediately  preceding  been  resi- 
dent in  such  County  or  Borough,  and  is  possessed  of  any 
One  or  more  of  the  Qualifications  following;  that  is  to 
say: 

1.  Has  on  the  First  Day  of  July  in  any  Year,  and  has 

had  during  the  Two  Tears  immediately  preceding, 
a  Balance  of  not  less  than  Fifty  Pounds  deposited 
in  some  Savings  Bank  in  his  own  sole  Name,  and 
for  his  own  Use  ;  or 

2.  Holds  on  the  First  Day  of  July  in  any  Year,  and 

has  held  during  the  Two  Years  immediately  pre- 
ceding, in  the  Books  of  the  Governor  and  Company 
of  the  Bank  of  England  or  Ireland  in  his  own 
sole  Name  and  for  his  own  Use  any  Parliamentary 
Stocks  or  Funds  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  the 
Amount  of  not  less  than  Fifty  Pounds ;  or 

3.  Has  during  the  Twelve  Months  immediately  prece- 

ding  the  Fifth  Day  of  April  in  any  Year  been 
charged  with  a  Sum  of  not  less  than  Twenty  SMI- 
lings  in  the  whole  of  the  Year  for  Assessed  Taxes 
and  Income  Tax,  or  either  of  such  Taxes,  and  has 
before   the   Twentieth  Day   of  July  in  that  Year 
paid   all  such   Taxes   due   from    him    up   to   the 
preceding  Fifth  Day  of  January : 
Provided,   first,   that   every    Person  entitled   to  vote  in 
respect  of  any  of  the  Qualifications  mentioned   in  this 
Section  shall  on  or  before  the  Twentieth  Day  of  July  in 
each  Year  claim  to  be  registered  as  a  Voter  j  secondly, 


216         LIFE  OF  LORD  BEAC0N8FIELD, 

that  no  Person  shall  be  entitled  to  be  reojistered  as  a 
Voter  or  to  vote  in  respect  of  any  of  the  Qualifications 
mentioned  in  this  Section  for  more  than  One  Place. 

7.  A  Person  registered  as  a  Voter  for  a  Borough  bj 
reason  of  his  having  been  charged  with  and  paid  the 
requisite  Amount  of  Assessed  Taxes  and  Income  Tax,  or 
either  of  such  Taxes,  shall  not  by  reason  of  being  so 
registered  lose  any  right  to  which  he  may  be  entitled  (if 
otherwise  duly  qualified)  to  be  registered  as  a  Voter  for 
the  same  Borough  in  respect  of  any  Franchise  involving 
Occupation  of  Premises  and  Payment  of  Eates,  and 
when  so  registered  in  respect  of  such  double  Qualification 
he  shall  be  entitled  to  give  Two  Votes  for  the  Member, 
or  (if  there  be  more  than  One)  for  each  Member  to  be 
returned  to  serve  in  Parliament  for  the  said  Borough. 


INDEX. 


Aberdeen,  Lord,  becomes  Pre- 
mier, 84  ;  resigns,  90. 

Abyssinian  war,  the,  117. 

"  Adullam,  the  Cave  of,"  109. 

Afi'ghan  war,  150-152. 

Agricultural  distress,  speeches 
on,  61,  62,  71-73. 

Agricultural  Holdings  Act,  132. 

Alar  cos,  198. 

Alroy,  Wondrous  Tale  of,  188, 
190. 


B. 


Bath  Letter,  the,  125,  note. 

Beaconsfield,  Lord.  See  Disraeli, 
Benjamin. 

Beaconsfield,  Lady,  See  Disraeli, 
Mary  Ann. 

Bedchamber  Plot,  25. 

Bentinck,  Lord  George,  G9,  70 ; 
LiJ'e  of,  63,  67,  75-77,  202. 

Berlin  Memorandum,  138 ;  Con- 
gress of,  143-149. 

Buckinghamshire,  Disraeli  re- 
turned for,  69. 

Budgets.     See  inf.  Disraeli, 

Bulgarian  atrocities,  139. 

Bulwer,  Lytton,  7,  8. 


Carnarvon,  Lord,  110,  111,  129, 

142. 
Chartists,  the,  25,  53,  73. 
Church,  position  of  the,  46,  56, 

103-108,  130,  134,  173-175. 
Church  and  Queen,  103. 
Cobden,  Richard,  31,  94. 
Coningshy,  22,  33,  37  ;  plot  of,  40 

-40,  192-93  ;  doctrines  of,  41- 

46 ;   characters  in,  48,  194-95. 
Conservatism,    22,    35,   44,  163- 

172. 
Contarini  Fleming,  5,  189. 
Cranborne,  Lord.     See  Salisbury. 
Crimean  war,  88-91. 
Crisis  Examined,  the,  11,  200. 
Croker,  J.  W.,  48,  75. 
Cyprus,  acquisition  of,  150. 


D. 

Derby,  Earl  of,  and  Disi'aeli,  70; 
declines  office,  73;  first  minis- 
try, 78-84;  again  declines 
office,  91 ;  second  ministry,  95- 
101;  third  ministry,  110-114. 

Derby,  Earl  of  (son  of  above),  95, 
109,  110,  129,  142. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  birth-place  of, 
1 ;  education,  2 ;  first  appear- 

15 


218 


INDEX. 


ance  in  print,  3  ;  travels,  4,  5  ; 
enters  society,  6,  7  ;  candiclate 
for  Parliament,  8-17  ;  elected 
at  Maidstone,  18 ;  maiden 
speech,  22-24 ;  marriage,  27  ; 
visits  the  continent,  63  ;  leader 
of  the  Opposition,  70 ;  Chan- 
cellor of  Exchequer,  78;  his 
first  Budget,  80-81 ;  second 
Budget,  83 ;  again  leads  Oppo- 
sition, 80  ;  Chancellor  of  Exche- 
quer (1857),  95 ;  first  Reform 
Bill,  97-100;  political  isola- 
tion, 103 ;  again  Chancellor, 
110 ;  second  Reform  Bill,  111- 
113  and  Appendix  ;  Prime  Mi- 
nister, 114;  again  in  Opposi- 
tion, 119-129 ;  Lord  Rector  of 
Glasgow,  125;  second  Ministry, 
129-154;  domestic  measures, 
131-135  ;  becomes  Lord  Bea- 
consfield,  135 ;  foreign  policy, 
136-152.  and  ^62  ;  resignation, 
154;  last  illness,  155  ;  death, 
156  ;  funeral,  156  ;  as  a  states- 
man and  orator,  161-187  ;  as  a 
man  of  letters,  189-205  ;  per- 
sonal characteristics,  206-212. 

Disraeli,  Isaac,  1,  2. 

Disraeli,  Mary  Ann,  7  ;  marriage, 
27 ;  becomes  Lady  Beacons- 
field,  123  ;  death  of,  123 ;  at 
Hughenden,  211. 

Disraeli,  Sarah,  1 ;  letters  to, 
4-5,  6,  8,11,18,23,27,37,49, 
63,  68,  70. 


E. 


Ellenborough,  Lord,  96. 
Endyinion,  154,  196. 
Exchequer,    Chancellor   of,   Dis- 
raeli as.     See  Disraeli. 


F. 

Free  Trade,  69-85. 


G. 


Gladstone,  Mr.  22,  31,40,  72,79, 
93 ;  his  Irish  Resolutions,  116  ; 
first  Ministry,  119-129;  second 
Ministry,  154 ;  on  Lord  Bea- 
consfield,  159,  211. 

Globe,  the,  Disraeli  and,  13-16. 

Granby,  Marquis  of,  69. 


H. 

Henley,  Mr.,  78,  79,  96. 
Henrietta  Temple,  18,  188,  190. 
Hope,  Henry,  37. 
Hughenden,  28,  75, 156,  157, 208, 

211. 
Hume,  Joseph,  8-9,  13,  16-17 


T. 


Infernal  Marriage,  the  197. 
Ireland,  Disraeli  on,  59,  172,  182. 
Italian  War,  the,  101. 


Jew  Bill,  97. 


L. 

Lewis,  Mrs.  Wyndham.  See  Dis- 
raeli, Mary  Ann. 

Liverpool  Cabinet,  the,  Disraeli 
on,  42-43. 

Lothair,  154,  196. 

Lyndhurst,  Lord,  10,  17. 


INDEX. 


219 


M. 

Maidstone,  elected  at,  18. 
Malmesbury,  Lord,  78,  95,  110, 

129 ;  his  Memoirs,  78,  92,  208. 
Manchester,  Disraeli  at,  49,  121. 
Manners,  Lord  John,  37,   48,  96, 

129,  156. 
Marlborough,  letter  to  the  Duke 

of,  153. 
Marylebbne,  candidature  at,  11. 
Maynooth  Grant,  the,  CO. 
Melbourne,  Lord,  7,  13,  25. 
Militia  Bills,  79,  80. 
Monarchy,  position  of  the,  46,  56, 

176-180. 


N. 
Northcote,  Sir  S.,  110,  129,  156. 


O'Conncll,  8,  13,  22. 


P. 

Pakington,  Sir  John,  78,  79,  96, 
110. 

Palmerston,  Lord,  77, 79,  88  ;  be- 
comes Premier,  91 ;  defeated, 
95  ;  again  Premier,  102 ;  death 
of,  108. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  21,  22,  and  the 
Bed-Chamber  Plot,  24  j  be- 
comes Premier  (1841),  28; 
attacked  by  Disraeli,  36,  60-66, 
and  186;  defeated,  67-68. 

Popanilla,  The  Voyage  of,  197. 

Post  Office  scandal,  the,  60. 

Press,  the  power  of  the,  46. 

Press,  newspaper,  86. 


Protection,    Disraeli    on,  30-33, 

62. 
Public  Worship  Regulation  Bill, 

130. 


E. 

Reform  Bills.     See  inf.  Disraeli. 
Rise  oflskander,  188,  190. 
Royal  Titles  Bill,  135. 
Runnymede,  Letters  oj,  202. 
Russell,  Lord  John,  77,  79,  82, 

88  ;  as  Foreign  Secretary,  103 

Prime  Minister,  108. 
Russo-Turkish  War,  140-143. 


s. 

Salisbury,  Marquis  of,  110,  111, 
129,  139,  156,  158. 

Sanitas  sanitatum,  131-32. 

San  Stephano,  Treaty  of,  141, 
143. 

Shrewsbury,      elected     at,     28 
speech  at,  30-34. 

Slough  speech,  the,  96. 

Smythe,  Hon,  George,  37,  48 

Spirit  of  Whiggism, 

Stanley,  Lord.     See  Derby 

Star  Chamber,  the,  3. 

Suez  Canal  Shares,  150. 

Sybil,  22,  25,  26,  202 ;  theme  of 
51-55 ;  plot  of,  193  ;  charac- 
ters in,  194-196. 


T. 


Tancred,  75,  195. 

Taunton,  candidature  at,  12. 

"  Territorial    constitution,"  our, 

65,  168-172. 
Toryism  popular,  9,   15-16,  37, 

57-58. 


220 


INDEX. 


Venetia,  18,  188,  191. 
Vindication  of  the  British  Consti- 
tution, the  10,  200. 
Vivian  Grey,  3,  188. 


w. 

Wellington,   Duke   of,   Disraeli's 

speech  on,  88. 
Westmeath  Committee,  121. 
What  is  He?  199. 


Whigs,  the,  Disraeli  on,  11,  41 

45-46, 166. 
Wycombe,  candidatures  at,  8,  10. 


Young  Duke,  3,  189. 

"  Young  England,"  34-58. 


z. 


Zulu  war,  153. 


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